Re: mod_rewrite usage in mixed OS environment

scott.kesler@gmail.com wrote:

if your internal file locations are shift around a lot, you can still offer a
persistent url space to your customers by implementing a reverse-proxy -
customers continue to use the same urls, and you proxy the internal content from
wherever it happens to be living. if the content moves [again and again], you
just change the proxy configuration to point at the new content source
behind-the-scenes -- that way the customers and web search engines that have
bookmarked your content will not need to change their urls.

whether you choose to reverse-proxy or redirect, here are three potential
solutions for you...

> My question is... can the .htaccess file be placed anywhere else? Can
> a 'master' .htaccess file be created in /apache2/conf/ or something
> similar?

you can use the apache Include directive to embed just about any file on the
system into your configuration at server (re)start:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#include

to embed a bunch of mod_rewrite rules (or other configuration directives that
accomplish the same redirects), you could have this in your httpd.conf:

Include /path/to/conf/rewrite_rules.txt

and, based on your example:

> The end result I'm looking for is:
> Original URL:
> http://www.foo.com/directory1/picture.jpg
> Redirected to URL:
> http://www.bar.com/directory1/picture.jpg

the /path/to/conf/rewrite_rules.txt file could include any of these three
approaches to mapping the old addresses to the new content location:

==== rewrite_rules.txt ===

### use mod_proxy to proxy the relocated content
### without exposing any changes to the end-user:

<ifModule mod_proxy.c>
ProxyRequests Off
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
ProxyPass /directory1 http://www.bar.com/directory1
ProxyPassReverse /directory1 http://www.bar.com/directory1
</IfModule>

### or...
### use apache mod_alias to handle the redirect

<ifModule mod_alias.c>
### redirect everything in /directory1 to directory1 on a different server:
RedirectMatch 301 ^/directory1/(.*) http://www.bar.com/directory1/$1
</ifModule>

### or...
### use mod_rewrite to handle the redirect

<ifModule mod_rewrite.c>
### redirect everything in /directory1 to directory1 on a different server:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/directory1/(.*) http://www.bar.com/directory1/$1 [R=301,L]
</ifModule>


=== /end of rewrite_rules.txt ===

hth

--sean

--
sean dreilinger - http://durak.org/sean/