htaccess remove index.php from url

I have a problem whereby google has indexed some pages with the wrong url.

The url they are indexing is:

http://www.example.com/index.php/section1/section2

I need it to redirect to:

http://www.example.com/section1/section2

.htaccess isn't my forte, so any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

The original answer is actually correct, but lacks explanation. I would like to add some explanations and modifications.

I suggest reading this short introduction https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/rewrite/intro.html (15mins) and reference these 2 pages while reading.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_rewrite.html https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/rewrite/flags.html

---

This is the basic rule to hide index.php from the URL. Put this in your root .htaccess file.

mod_rewrite must be enabled with PHP and this will work for the PHP version higher than 5.2.6.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) /index.php/$1 [L]

---

Think %{REQUEST_FILENAME} as the the path after host.

E.g. https://www.example.com/index.html, %{REQUEST_FILENAME} is /index.html

So the last 3 lines means, if it's not a regular file !-f and not a directory !-d, then do the RewriteRule.

As for RewriteRule formats:

So RewriteRule (.*) /index.php/$1 [L] means, if the 2 RewriteCond are satisfied, it (.*) would match everything after the hostname. . matches any single character , .* matches any characters and (.*) makes this a variables can be references with $1, then replace with /index.php/$1. The final effect is to add a preceding index.php to the whole URL path.

E.g. for https://www.example.com/hello, it would produce, https://www.example.com/index.php/hello internally.

Another key problem is that this indeed solve the question. Internally, (I guess) it always need https://www.example.com/index.php/hello, but with rewriting, you could visit the site without index.php, apache adds that for you internally.

---

Btw, making an extra .htaccess file is not very recommended by the Apache doc.

> Rewriting is typically configured in the main server configuration > setting (outside any <Directory> section) or inside <VirtualHost> > containers. This is the easiest way to do rewriting and is recommended

To remove index.php from the URL, and to redirect the visitor to the non-index.php version of the page:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET.*index\.php [NC]
RewriteRule (.*?)index\.php/*(.*) /$1$2 [R=301,NE,L]

This will cleanly redirect /index.php/myblog to simply /myblog.

Using a 301 redirect will preserve Google search engine rankings.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /(.*)index\.php($|\ |\?)
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [R=301,L]

Assuming the existent url is

http://example.com/index.php/foo/bar

and we want to convert it into

 http://example.com/foo/bar

You can use the following rule :

RewriteEngine on
#1) redirect the client from "/index.php/foo/bar" to "/foo/bar"
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php/(.+)\sHTTP [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [NE,L,R]
#2)internally map "/foo/bar" to "/index.php/foo/bar"
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

In the spep #1 we first match against the request string and capture everything after the /index.php/ and the captured value is saved in %1 var. We then send the browser to a new url. The #2 processes the request internally. When the browser arrives at /foo/bar , #2rule rewrites the new url to the orignal location.

Steps to remove index.php from url for your wordpress website.

1. Check you should have mod_rewrite enabled at your server. To check whether it's enabled or not - Create 1 file phpinfo.php at your root folder with below command.

    <?php
      phpinfo?();
    ?>
   

Now run this file - www.yoursite.com/phpinfo.php and it will show mod_rewrite at Load modules section. If not enabled then perform below commands at your terminal.

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo service apache2 restart

2. Make sure your .htaccess is existing in your WordPress root folder, if not create one .htaccess file Paste this code at your .htaccess file :-

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

3. Further make permission of .htaccess to 666 so that it become writable and now you can do changes in your wordpress permalinks.

4. Now go to Settings -> permalinks -> and change to your needed url format. Remove this code /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ and insert this code on Custom Structure: /%postname%/

5. If still not succeeded then check your hosting, mine was digitalocean server, so I cleared it myself

Edited the file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

Added this line after DocumentRoot /var/www/html

<Directory /var/www/html>
   AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Restart your apache server

Note: /var/www/html will be your document root

Do the following steps

1. Make sure that the hosting / your pc mod_rewrite module is active. if not active then try to activate in a way, open the httpd.conf file. You can check this in the phpinfo.php to find out.

change this setting :

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

to be and restart wamp

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

2. Then go to .htaccess file, and try to modify to be:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^(.*)\?*$ index.php/$1 [L,QSA]

if above does not work try with this:

RewriteEngine on

# if a directory or a file exists, use it directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# otherwise forward it to index.php
RewriteRule . index.php

3. Move .htaccess file to root directory, where is index.php there.

www OR root folder
- index.php
- .htaccess

Some may get a 403 with the method listed above using mod_rewrite. Another solution to rewite index.php out is as follows:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> 

RewriteEngine On

# Put your installation directory here:
RewriteBase /

# Do not enable rewriting for files or directories that exist
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

</IfModule> 

I have used many codes from the above mentioned sections for removing index.php form the base url. But it was not working from my end. So, you can use this code which I have used and its working properly.

If you really need to remove index.php from the base URL then just put this code in your htaccess.

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET.*index\.php [NC]

RewriteRule (.*?)index\.php/*(.*) /$1$2 [R=301,NE,L]

This will work, use the following code in .htaccess file RewriteEngine On

# Send would-be 404 requests to Craft
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(favicon\.ico|apple-touch-icon.*\.png)$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.+) index.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

I don't have to many bulky code to give out just a little snippet solved the issue for me.

i have https://example.com/entitlements/index.php rather i want anyone that types it to get error on request event if you type https://example.com/entitlements/index you will still get error since there's this word "index" is contained there will always be an error thrown back though the content of index.php will still be displayed properly

> cletus post on "https://stackoverflow.com/a/1055655/12192635" which > solved it

Edit your .htaccess file with the below to redirect people visiting https://example.com/entitlements/index.php to 404 page

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \.php[\ /?].*HTTP/
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [R=404,L]

to redirect people visiting https://example.com/entitlements/index to 404 page

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \index[\ /?].*HTTP/
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [R=404,L]

Not withstanding we have already known that the above code works with already existing codes on stack see where i applied the code above just below the all codes at it end.

# The following will allow you to use URLs such as the following:
#
#   example.com/anything
#   example.com/anything/
#
# Which will actually serve files such as the following:
#
#   example.com/anything.html
#   example.com/anything.php
#
# But *only if they exist*, otherwise it will report the usual 404 error.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

# Remove trailing slashes.
# e.g. example.com/foo/ will redirect to example.com/foo
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ /$1 [R=permanent,QSA]

# Redirect to HTML if it exists.
# e.g. example.com/foo will display the contents of example.com/foo.html
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1.html [L,QSA]

# Redirect to PHP if it exists.
# e.g. example.com/foo will display the contents of example.com/foo.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1.php [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \.php[\ /?].*HTTP/
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [R=404,L]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \index[\ /?].*HTTP/
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [R=404,L]

try this, it work for me

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

# Enable Rewrite Engine
# ------------------------------
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Redirect index.php Requests
# ------------------------------
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET.*index\.php [NC]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} !/system/.*
RewriteRule (.*?)index\.php/*(.*) /$1$2 [R=301,L]

# Standard ExpressionEngine Rewrite
# ------------------------------
RewriteCond $1 !\.(css|js|gif|jpe?g|png) [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

</IfModule>

For more detail

create .htaccess file on project root directory and put below code for remove index.php

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond $1 !^(index.php|resources|robots.txt)
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L,QSA]