htaccess for removing index.php

This is not a question - it's a tip.

There are many folks out there puzzled because the htaccess file supplied at the root of CI does not remove index.php from the URL. They've checked that mod_rewrite is on and that Allow overrides is on for their root, but still no joy. Lots of conflicting advice on Stackoverflow and the like. I tried it on three different Apache setups: at home it worked, at hosting provider A it worked, but at hosting provider B it did not.

Fortunately hosting provider B had a very smart support person who told me the fix.

The re-write rule supplied by CI is this : RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
The one that works on all Apache servers is this: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
Notice the ? at the end of index.php

It's backwards compatible - the new rule works on all the machines I tested it on.

So I'd like to suggest that the CI folks change the documentation for "Removing the index.php file"

Hope this will help someone

KT

Can you tell under what condition htaccess content specified in documentation doesn't work? (Apache server version, configuration...)

Has to do with running Apache fast CGI

PHP Code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>


    # Make sure directory listing is disabled
    Options +FollowSymLinks -Indexes
    RewriteEngine on

    # NOTICE: If you get a 404 play with combinations of the following commented out lines
    #AllowOverride All
    #RewriteBase /wherever/ci/is
    RewriteBase /

    # Restrict your site to only one domain
    # Important USE ONLY ONE OF THESE OPTIONS BELOW!

    # Option 1: To rewrite "www.domain.com -> domain.com" uncomment the following lines.
    #RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
    #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

    # Option 2: To rewrite "domain.com -> www.domain.com" uncomment the following lines.
    #RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\..+$ [NC]
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (.+)$ [NC]
    #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L]

    # Option 3: Remove index.php from URL
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Requested-With}    !^XMLHttpRequest$
    RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST}                ^[^/]*/index\.php [NC]
    RewriteRule ^index\.php(.*)$            $1 [R=301,NS,L]

    # Send request via index.php (again, not if its a real file or folder)
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond $1 ^(robots\.txt|favicon\.ico|style\.css)

    # deal with php5-cgi first
    <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
    </IfModule>

    <IfModule !mod_fcgid.c>

        # for normal Apache installations
        <IfModule mod_php5.c>
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [QSA,L]
        </IfModule>

        # for Apache FCGI installations
        <IfModule !mod_php5.c>
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
        </IfModule>

    </IfModule>

</IfModule> 


What did you Try? What did you Get? What did you Expect?

Joined CodeIgniter Community 2009.  ( Skype: insitfx )

thanks for the tip. was searching for the stuff a whole week.

viraltalks

Has to do with running Apache fast CGI

PHP Code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>


    # Make sure directory listing is disabled
    Options +FollowSymLinks -Indexes
    RewriteEngine on

    # NOTICE: If you get a 404 play with combinations of the following commented out lines
    #AllowOverride All
    #RewriteBase /wherever/ci/is
    RewriteBase /

    # Restrict your site to only one domain
    # Important USE ONLY ONE OF THESE OPTIONS BELOW!

    # Option 1: To rewrite "www.domain.com -> domain.com" uncomment the following lines.
    #RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
    #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

    # Option 2: To rewrite "domain.com -> www.domain.com" uncomment the following lines.
    #RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\..+$ [NC]
    #RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (.+)$ [NC]
    #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L]

    # Option 3: Remove index.php from URL
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Requested-With}    !^XMLHttpRequest$
    RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST}                ^[^/]*/index\.php [NC]
    RewriteRule ^index\.php(.*)$            $1 [R=301,NS,L]

    # Send request via index.php (again, not if its a real file or folder)
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond $1 ^(robots\.txt|favicon\.ico|style\.css)

    # deal with php5-cgi first
    <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
    </IfModule>

    <IfModule !mod_fcgid.c>

        # for normal Apache installations
        <IfModule mod_php5.c>
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [QSA,L]
        </IfModule>

        # for Apache FCGI installations
        <IfModule !mod_php5.c>
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
        </IfModule>

    </IfModule>

</IfModule> 


Yep - that's what the support guy told me. I don't think I would have figured that out on my own ! And thanks for the more detailed reply - I'm sure that will be useful for many folks
KT