Complex URL Redirects

sean

TimeHorse My question is then, what is included in the search for the rewrite rule?

The variables available for rewrite conditions are documented at: mod_rewrite > RewriteCond Directive

You can control the type of redirect with an R flag on the rewrite rule, like: [R=301,L]

TimeHorse

sean But, does that mean an apache client for each redirect, or just one t]which can handle everting with multiple rules based on which domain the request came from?

sean

TimeHorse If all of the domains/subdomain are serving the same application then you can put all of your rules in a single .htaccess file.

TimeHorse

I'm still a little confused by this. Let's say I have an apache server running on a site forward.jeffreycjacobs.com, which I believe I have done correctly. Now, I want a CNAME record which maps test.jeffreycjacobs.com to forward.jeffreycjacobs.com. I can't figure out how to do that as CNAME records in the GUI only have one field and it's unclear if this is a from field or a to field. If a to field, then how do I create the test.jeffreycjacobs.com site since all it will be is a forwarding address to forward.jeffreycjacobs.com, it won't attach to an application and won't have a domain other than the domain jeffreycjacobs.com. It doesn't make any sense to me.
But, assuming I finally understand this Byzantian way, I would write RewriteCond entry in .htaccess file in the apache root folder which matches test.jeffreycjacobs.com, then I'd add a RewriteRule to send all traffic (.*) matching the above RewriteCond to my target domain. For this test, I would just send all traffic to www.google.com since this is only a test. The idea is https://test.jeffreycjacobs.com/ should redirect to https://www.google.com/search?q=%2B%22TimeHorse%22 (and both HTTP and HTTPS should redirect). It just doesn't make sense to me how this would be done because I don't know how to set up the CNAME record or have a subdomain be just a CNAME sending it to the apache server

sean

TimeHorse:

Add "test.jeffreycjacobs.com" as a new domain: https://docs.opalstack.com/user-guide/domains/#adding-domains
Add the CNAME record to the new "test.jeffreycjacobs.com" item: https://docs.opalstack.com/user-guide/domains/#adding-dns-records-manually
Add the "test.jeffreycjacobs.com" domain to the site that you have configured to serve your Apache app: https://docs.opalstack.com/user-guide/sites/#editing-sites

TimeHorse

Okay, I tried to do that. I set up google.jeffreycjacobs.com to CNAME forward to forward.jeffreycjacobs.com, which is a domain, and also a site and that site is attached to Apache. In the Apache root, I created a .htaccess file which has:
RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.google.com/?q="+TimeHorse" [R=302,L]

When I try to visit either https://google.jeffreycjacobs.com/ or https://forward.jeffreycjacobs.com/, I get a default page:

🎉 Good news!

This site is hosted at (((Opalstack!

🤔 Not what you expected?

If this message isn't what you were expecting to see here then please contact Opalstack Support for assistance.

And here I am! Why didn't it go to the google search I have in my .htaccess file with the catch-all redirect?

Jeffrey

sean

TimeHorse you have to route google.jeffreycjacobs.com and forward.jeffreycjacobs.com to the site, ie step 3 in the instructions that I provided.

After you do so you'll also need to wait a few minutes for the site certificate to be updated. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so and then https://forward.jeffreycjacobs.com/ and https://google.jeffreycjacobs.com/ should work as expected.

TimeHorse

I think I see what you mean but the rewrite rules aren't working:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^google\.jeffreycjacobs\.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.google.com/search?q="+TimeHorse" [R=302,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^forward\.jeffreycjacobs\.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.timehorse.com/ [R=302,L]

I want google.jeffreycjacobs.com to go to google, but forward.jeffreycjacobs.com to go to timehorse.com, but it looks like the first rule matches nothing and all traffic is being filtered to the second rule. I though conditions terminate at the rule, that's what the Apache documentation says. So each pair should be their own rules.

sean

TimeHorse I checked your setup and saw that you have the "Route all traffic to a single domain?" option enabled for your site. This is causing the redirect to forward.jeffreycjacobs.com to happen upstream in the front end web server before the request hits Apache, so the request for google.jeffreycjacobs.com is never reaching your htaccess rules.

To solve that, disable the "route all traffic to a single domain" option for the site at https://my.opalstack.com/domains/.

TimeHorse

I changed it to disable the "route all traffic to a single domain" but it still sends all traffic to the second domain. I am pretty sure that's not the fix.

sean

TimeHorse The rules in your htaccess are the currently the same as what you posted above and the redirects are working correctly from my end.

Here are the results I see from curl:

$ curl -v https://google.jeffreycjacobs.com 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep -i '< location'
< location: https://www.google.com/search?q=%2b"TimeHorse"

 $ curl -v https://forward.jeffreycjacobs.com 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep -i '< location'
< location: https://www.timehorse.com/

Disabling "route all traffic to a single domain" solved the problem. If you're still seeing the wrong redirect on your end then please clear your browser cache and try it again.

TimeHorse

sean Not sure why it didn't work after the 5 minute ttl I set but I did check this morning and we are good to go. I studied the flags for rewrites as well and see the NE is handy with replacements using a get query with %xx encoding and $1 to preserve the directory structure, I also learned a bit about GET query concatenation and chaining (but I don't expect to use chaining.

TimeHorse

I can't get RewriteCond %{REQUEST_SCHEME} http [NC] working in my rules. This was added in Apache 2.5; do we have apache 2.5 installed?

sean

TimeHorse no, we're running Apache 2.4.6.

What are you trying to accomplish there?

TimeHorse

I want to see if I can filter between http and https as allowed by Apache 2.5, which added REQUEST_SCHEME. If that's not supported, I'll see if I can get SERVER_PROTOCOL working with RewriteCond %{SERVER_PROTOCOL} ^https [NC]

TimeHorse

Not working

sean

TimeHorse perhaps the following will work for you:

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} = on

TimeHorse

Why I do that, it doesn't redirect and I get a 403 (Forbidden). I have a R of 301 BTW, not F. When I try with http with %{HTTPS} on then it just converts to https and gives me the same forbidden.

When I do the pedantic case of:
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on

Then the HTTPS redirects properly but the http just goes to the web address of the apache server itself (fordarer.jeffreycjacobs.com).

nick

TimeHorse Hi there,

I'm not seeing any rules in your .htaccess file for the domain forward.jeffreycjacobs.com, so nothing for it will get processed. It looks like you changed the rewrite rules from what they were when you shared them previously. Your current rules only process requests for timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com and google.jeffreycjacobs.com, so if you want to process a redirect for forward.jeffreycjacobs.com too then add it to the same site record as the other domains and update your .htaccess rules.

TimeHorse

nick The problem is that those are the only rules I'm testing, google.jeffreycjacobs.com and timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com. I don't expect either of those to redirect to forwarding, yet they do. That's the issue. The way I have things set up, I expect the following:

https://google.jeffreycjacobs.com goes to https google
http://google.jeffreycjacobs.com goes to https google
https://timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com goes to https timehorse
http://timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com should not resolve as there is no forwarding rule for it

This is what I'm seeing:

https://google.jeffreycjacobs.com goes to https google (Good)
http://google.jeffreycjacobs.com goes to https google (Good)
https://timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com gives a 403 Forbidden error and goes nowhere
http://timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com gives a 403 Forbidden error and goes nowhere

Clearly, the rule for timehorse.jeffreycjacobs.com isn't working. Any advice you can give?

TimeHorse

TimeHorse
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^timehorse\.jeffreycjacobs\.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.timehorse.com/$1 [R=302,L]
My rule, FYI