htaccess: add php extension, except when there is a trailing slash

Question

I understand that to hide a website extension, I can use the following regular expression in htaccess.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]

This will rewrite, e.g., example.com\post to example.com\post.php.

However, how do I modify the script such that it DOES NOT add .php when there is a trailing slash at the end? This is so that it will recognise the index page.

Currently, if I have example.com\folder\, it will rewrite it as example.com\folder\.php.

Thanks.

arkascha · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-26 16:17:28Z

Instead of explicitly checking for a trailing slash the usual approach is to check if the request actually references a directory in the server side file system. That can be implemented like this, which also checks if such a php file actually does exist:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^/?(.+)/?$ /$1.php [END]

In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.

This rule will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.

And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).

Gary Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-26 16:05:39Z

0

Use another RewriteCond to check the URI for a trailing slash:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(/$|\.)
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]

You can find a working example of this here:

https://htaccess.madewithlove.be?share=d1fa1042-e671-5b7d-ba96-572510689e8b

answered Aug 26, 2019 at 16:05

Gary Thomas

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