htaccess regex wordpress not working

Solution:1

Have it like this:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wordpress/

RewriteRule ^bob/?$ /about [R,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^properties/([a-zA-Z]+)/([a-zA-Z+'.]+)/?$ /properties/?prov=$1&city=$2 [R,NC,QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(?:properties/)?([0-9]+)/?$ /properties/?id=$1 [R,QSA,NC,L]

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wordpress/index.php [L]

Solution:2

Hypertext Access File, or most known as .htaccess, is a configuration file for Apache web servers that can be used to define very specific configuration options. Configurations can become quite granular with the use of regex however, most users typically stick to using popular .htaccess examples such as redirecting web pages or setting custom headers.

Although .htaccess can be quite useful, it can also be somewhat of a challenge to figure out where the issue lies given you are faced with an .htaccess not working. This post provides a few tips for helping to resolve this issue by identifying a few common .htaccess problems that you can check in your own .htaccess file, as well as a few troubleshooting techniques.

The following includes a few common .htaccess problems that are easy to fix and worth trying if you are experiencing issues with your .htaccess file not working.

This is the first thing that should be verified. If the AllowOverride directive is set to None then this will disable all .htaccess files. In order to verify this, you must open the Apache configuration file (typically either called httpd.conf or apache.conf) and check that the AllowOverride directive is set to AllowOverride All. If you needed to make changes to your Apache config, remember to save the file and restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

If you are creating an .htaccess file from scratch (i.e. you are not using a CMS which comes with an .htaccess file included) then you must ensure that the filename is correct and that it begins with a period (.). Without the period at the beginning, Apache will ignore the file – same goes for if the file is misspelled. Additionally, double check that the filename is all lowercase. Your .htaccess file should be named exactly as .htaccess.

Certain .htaccess rules may be sensitive to where they are located within the .htaccess file and therefore cause an .htaccess not working issue. If upon adding an .htaccess rule you notice that it is not taking effect, try moving it above the previous rule or to the very beginning of your file.

Although most users simply use one .htaccess file, you have the ability to use multiple. Since .htaccess file rules apply to the directory that they live in, as well as all other subdirectories, it can happen that two or more .htaccess files are conflicting with one another. To verify this, try disabling each additional .htaccess file you have one-by-one in order to see where the issue is.

It is quite common for a syntax error to be the reason for an .htaccess file not working. If you are familiar with how to read and configure .htaccess rules, double check your configuration. Otherwise, you can use the troubleshooting tips mentioned in the next section to help determine why you are experiencing an issue.

There are a few options available for troubleshooting an .htaccess not working. Depending upon the type of issue you are trying to solve, you may need to use a combination of the suggestions mentioned below to determine what steps need to be taken to rectify the issue.

If you’re having issues with the actual syntax of your .htaccess file, you can run its contents through an .htaccess validator. The following tools will check your syntax and report back any errors that they find.

• .htaccess Check – This first tool gives you two options for validating your .htaccess file. You can either copy and paste the contents of your file directly into the tool or upload an .htaccess file. The tool will then check your syntax and highlight any lines that it finds errors on.

Lyxx – You can also use the .htaccess syntax validator offered by Lyxx. This tool is similar to the one mentioned above except it does not have the option to upload an .htaccess file, you can only copy and paste your syntax.

If upon making changes to your .htaccess file your website breaks, you can also check the Apache error log for additional debugging information. The Apache error log file is typically located in the /var/log/apache2/ directory. Therefore, let’s say for example we have the following content in our .htaccess file.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

This is some gibberish

As you can see, I’ve added “This is some gibberish” to intentionally throw an error. Once this file is saved and the page is reloaded, we can check the error logs with the following command.

sudo tail /var/log/apache2/error.log

In this case, Apache throws the following error:

/var/www/wordpress/.htaccess: Invalid command 'This', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration, referer: http://yourwebsite.com/

We can use this information to then go back to our .htaccess file and remove or modify any parts of the file that were flagged in the error log