.htaccess

[riderz]

here are some stuff i found mabe it come in handy

General Information [ ^ ]

.htaccess Definition1 [ ^ ]

Apache server software provides distributed (i.e., directory-level) configuration via Hypertext Access files. These .htaccess files enable the localized fine-tuning of Apache’s universal system-configuration directives, which are defined in Apache’s main configuration file. The localized .htaccess directives must operate from within a file named .htaccess. The user must have appropriate file permissions to access and/or edit the .htaccess file. Further, .htaccess file permissions should never allow world write access — a secure permissions setting is “644”, which allows universal read access and user-only write access. Finally, .htaccess rules apply to the parent directory and all subdirectories. Thus to apply configuration rules to an entire website, place the .htaccess file in the root directory of the site.

Commenting .htaccess Code [ ^ ]

Comments are essential to maintaining control over any involved portion of code. Comments in .htaccess code are fashioned on a per-line basis, with each line of comments beginning with a pound sign #. Thus, comments spanning multiple lines in the .htaccess file require multiple pound signs. Further, due to the extremely volatile nature of htaccess voodoo, it is wise to include only alphanumeric characters (and perhaps a few dashes and underscores) in any .htaccess comments.

Important Notes for .htaccess Noobs [ ^ ]

As a configuration file, .htaccess is very powerful. Even the slightest syntax error (like a missing space) can result in severe server malfunction. Thus it is crucial to make backup copies of everything related to your site (including any original .htaccess files) before working with your Hypertext Access file(s). It is also important to check your entire website thoroughly after making any changes to your .htaccess file. If any errors or other problems are encountered, employ your backups immediately to restore original functionality.

Performance Issues [ ^ ]

.htaccess directives provide directory-level configuration without requiring access to Apache’s main server cofiguration file (httpd.conf). However, due to performance and security concerns, the main configuration file should always be used for server directives whenever possible. For example, when a server is configured to process .htaccess directives, Apache must search every directory within the domain and load any and all .htaccess files upon every document request. This results in increased page processing time and thus decreases performance. Such a performance hit may be unnoticeable for sites with light traffic, but becomes a more serious issue for more popular websites. Therefore, .htaccess files should only be used when the main server configuration file is inaccessible. See the “Performance Tricks” section of this article for more information.

Regex Character Definitions for htaccess2 [ ^ ]
#
the # instructs the server to ignore the line. used for including comments. each line of comments requires it’s own #. when including comments, it is good practice to use only letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores. this practice will help eliminate/avoid potential server parsing errors.
[F]
Forbidden: instructs the server to return a 403 Forbidden to the client.
[L]
Last rule: instructs the server to stop rewriting after the preceding directive is processed.
[N]
Next: instructs Apache to rerun the rewrite rule until all rewriting directives have been achieved.
[G]
Gone: instructs the server to deliver Gone (no longer exists) status message.
[P]
Proxy: instructs server to handle requests by mod_proxy
[C]
Chain: instructs server to chain the current rule with the previous rule.
[R]
Redirect: instructs Apache to issue a redirect, causing the browser to request the rewritten/modified URL.
[NC]
No Case: defines any associated argument as case-insensitive. i.e., "NC" = "No Case".
[PT]
Pass Through: instructs mod_rewrite to pass the rewritten URL back to Apache for further processing.
[OR]
Or: specifies a logical "or" that ties two expressions together such that either one proving true will cause the associated rule to be applied.
[NE]
No Escape: instructs the server to parse output without escaping characters.
[NS]
No Subrequest: instructs the server to skip the directive if internal sub-request.
[QSA]
Append Query String: directs server to add the query string to the end of the expression (URL).
[S=x]
Skip: instructs the server to skip the next "x" number of rules if a match is detected.
[E=variable:value]
Environmental Variable: instructs the server to set the environmental variable "variable" to "value".
[T=MIME-type]
Mime Type: declares the mime type of the target resource.
[]
specifies a character class, in which any character within the brackets will be a match. e.g., [xyz] will match either an x, y, or z.
[]+
character class in which any combination of items within the brackets will be a match. e.g., [xyz]+ will match any number of x’s, y’s, z’s, or any combination of these characters.
[^]
specifies not within a character class. e.g., [^xyz] will match any character that is neither x, y, nor z.
[a-z]
a dash (-) between two characters within a character class ([]) denotes the range of characters between them. e.g., [a-zA-Z] matches all lowercase and uppercase letters from a to z.
a{n}
specifies an exact number, n, of the preceding character. e.g., x{3} matches exactly three x’s.
a{n,}
specifies n or more of the preceding character. e.g., x{3,} matches three or more x’s.
a{n,m}
specifies a range of numbers, between n and m, of the preceding character. e.g., x{3,7} matches three, four, five, six, or seven x’s.
()
used to group characters together, thereby considering them as a single unit. e.g., (perishable)?press will match press, with or without the perishable prefix.
^
denotes the beginning of a regex (regex = regular expression) test string. i.e., begin argument with the proceeding character.
$
denotes the end of a regex (regex = regular expression) test string. i.e., end argument with the previous character.
?
declares as optional the preceding character. e.g., monzas? will match monza or monzas, while mon(za)? will match either mon or monza. i.e., x? matches zero or one of x.
!
declares negation. e.g., “!string” matches everything except “string”.
.
a dot (or period) indicates any single arbitrary character.
-
instructs “not to” rewrite the URL, as in “...domain.com.* - [F]”.
+
matches one or more of the preceding character. e.g., G+ matches one or more G’s, while "+" will match one or more characters of any kind.
*
matches zero or more of the preceding character. e.g., use “.*” as a wildcard.
|
declares a logical “or” operator. for example, (x|y) matches x or y.
\
escapes special characters ( ^ $ ! . * | ). e.g., use “\.” to indicate/escape a literal dot.
\.
indicates a literal dot (escaped).
/*
zero or more slashes.
.*
zero or more arbitrary characters.
^$
defines an empty string.
^.*$
the standard pattern for matching everything.
[^/.]
defines one character that is neither a slash nor a dot.
[^/.]+
defines any number of characters which contains neither slash nor dot.
http://
this is a literal statement — in this case, the literal character string, “http://”.
^domain.*
defines a string that begins with the term “domain”, which then may be proceeded by any number of any characters.
^domain\.com$
defines the exact string “domain.com”.
-d
tests if string is an existing directory
-f
tests if string is an existing file
-s
tests if file in test string has a non-zero value

Redirection Header Codes [ ^ ]
301 - Moved Permanently
302 - Moved Temporarily
403 - Forbidden
404 - Not Found
410 - Gone
Essentials [ ^ ]

Commenting your htaccess Files [ ^ ]

It is an excellent idea to consistenly and logically comment your htaccess files. Any line in an htaccess file that begins with the pound sign ( # ) tells the server to ignore it. Multiple lines require multiple pounds and use letters/numbers/dash/underscore only:

# this is a comment
# each line must have its own pound sign
# use only alphanumeric characters along with dashes - and underscores _

Enable Basic Rewriting [ ^ ]

Certain servers may not have “mod_rewrite” enabled by default. To ensure mod_rewrite (basic rewriting) is enabled throughout your site, add the following line once to your site’s root htaccess file:

# enable basic rewriting
RewriteEngine on

Enable Symbolic Links [ ^ ]

Enable symbolic links (symlinks) by adding the following directive to the target directory’s htaccess file. Note: for the FollowSymLinks directive to function, AllowOverride Options privileges must be enabled from within the server configuration file (see proceeding paragraph for more information):

# enable symbolic links
Options +FollowSymLinks

Enable AllowOverride [ ^ ]

For directives that require AllowOverride in order to function, such as FollowSymLinks (see above paragraph), the following directive must be added to the server configuration file. For performance considerations, it is important to only enable AllowOverride in the specific directory or directories in which it is required. In the following code chunk, we are enabling the AllowOverride privs only in the specified directory (/www/replace/this/with/actual/directory). Refer to this section for more information about AllowOverride and performance enhancement:

# enable allowoverride privileges
<Directory /www/replace/this/with/actual/directory>
 AllowOverride Options
</Directory>

Rename the htaccess File [ ^ ]

Not every system enjoys the extension-only format of htaccess files. Fortunately, you can rename them to whatever you wish, granted the name is valid on your system. Note: This directive must be placed in the server-wide configuration file or it will not work:

# rename htaccess files
AccessFileName ht.access

Note: If you rename your htaccess files, remember to update any associated configuration settings. For example, if you are protecting your htaccess file via FilesMatch, remember to inform it of the renamed files:

# protect renamed htaccess files
<FilesMatch "^ht\.">
 Order deny,allow
 Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Retain Rules Defined in httpd.conf [ ^ ]

Save yourself time and effort by defining replicate rules for multiple virtual hosts once and only once via your httpd.conf file. Then, simply instruct your target htaccess file(s) to inheret the httpd.conf rules by including this directive:

RewriteOptions Inherit
Performance [ ^ ]

Improving Performance via AllowOverride [ ^ ]

Limit the extent to which htaccess files decrease performance by enabling AllowOverride only in required directories. For example, if AllowOverride is enabled throughout the entire site, the server must dig through every directory, searching for htaccess files that may not even exist. To prevent this, we disable the AllowOverride in the site’s root htaccess file and then enable AllowOverride only in required directories via the server config file (refer to this section for more information). Note: if you do not have access to your site’s server config file and also need AllowOverride privileges, do not use this directive:

# increase performance by disabling allowoverride
AllowOverride None

Improving Performance by Passing the Character Set [ ^ ]

Prevent certain 500 error displays by passing the default character set parameter before you get there. Note: replace the “utf-8” below with the charset that your site is using:

# pass the default character set
AddDefaultCharset utf-8

Improving Performance by Preserving Bandwidth [ ^ ]

To increase performance on PHP enabled servers, add the following directive:

# preserve bandwidth for PHP enabled servers
<ifmodule mod_php4.c>
 php_value zlib.output_compression 16386
</ifmodule>

Disable the Server Signature [ ^ ]

Here we are disabling the digital signature that would otherwise identify the server:

# disable the server signature
ServerSignature Off

Set the Server Timezone [ ^ ]

Here we are instructing the server to synchronize chronologically according to the time zone of some specified state:

# set the server timezone
SetEnv TZ America/Washington

Set the Email Address for the Server Administrator [ ^ ]

Here we are specifying the default email address for the server administrator:

# set the server administrator email
SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN default@domain.com

Improve Site Transfer Speed by Enabling File Caching [ ^ ]

The htaccess genius over at askapache.com explains how to dramatically improve your site’s transfer speed by enabling file caching 3. Using time in seconds* to indicate the duration for which cached content should endure, we may generalize the htaccess rules as such (edit file types and time value to suit your needs):

# cache images and flash content for one month
<FilesMatch ".(flv|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|ico|swf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2592000"
</FilesMatch>

# cache text, css, and javascript files for one week
<FilesMatch ".(js|css|pdf|txt)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=604800"
</FilesMatch>

# cache html and htm files for one day
<FilesMatch ".(html|htm)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=43200"
</FilesMatch>

# implement minimal caching during site development
<FilesMatch "\.(flv|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|ico|js|css|pdf|swf|html|htm|txt)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=5"
</FilesMatch>

# explicitly disable caching for scripts and other dynamic files
<FilesMatch "\.(pl|php|cgi|spl|scgi|fcgi)$">
Header unset Cache-Control
</FilesMatch>

# alternate method for file caching
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault A604800 # 1 week
ExpiresByType image/x-icon A2419200 # 1 month
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript A2419200 # 1 month
ExpiresByType text/css A2419200 # 1 month
ExpiresByType text/html A300 # 5 minutes
# disable caching for scripts and other dynamic files
<FilesMatch "\.(pl|php|cgi|spl|scgi|fcgi)$">
ExpiresActive Off
</FilesMatch>
* Convert common time intervals into seconds:
300 = 5 minutes
2700 = 45 minutes
3600 = 1 hour
54000 = 15 hours
86400 = 1 day
518400 = 6 days
604800 = 1 week
1814400 = 3 weeks
2419200 = 1 month
26611200 = 11 months
29030400 = 1 year = never expires

Set the default language and character set [ ^ ]

Here is an easy way to set the default language for pages served by your server (edit the language to suit your needs):

# set the default language
DefaultLanguage en-US

Likewise, here we are setting the default character set (edit to taste):

# set the default character set
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

Declare specific/additional MIME types [ ^ ]

# add various mime types
AddType application/x-shockwave-flash .swf
AddType video/x-flv .flv
AddType image/x-icon .ico

Send character set and other headers without meta tags [ ^ ]

# send the language tag and default character set
# AddType 'text/html; charset=UTF-8' html
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
DefaultLanguage en-US

Limit server request methods to GET and PUT [ ^ ]

# limit server request methods to GET and PUT
Options -ExecCGI -Indexes -All
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK|OPTIONS|HEAD) RewriteRule .* - [F]

Selectively process files according to server request method [ ^ ]

# process files according to server request method
Script PUT /cgi-bin/upload.cgi
Script GET /cgi-bin/download.cgi

Execute various file types through a cgi script [ ^ ]

For those special occasions where certain file types need to be processed with some specific cgi script, let em know who sent ya:

# execute all png files via png-script.cgi
Action image/png /cgi-bin/png-script.cgi
Security [ ^ ]

Prevent Acess to .htaccess [ ^ ]

Add the following code block to your htaccess file to add an extra layer of security. Any attempts to access the htaccess file will result in a 403 error message. Of course, your first layer of defense to protect htaccess files involves setting htaccess file permissions via CHMOD to 644:

# secure htaccess file
<Files .htaccess>
 order allow,deny
 deny from all
</Files>

Prevent Acess to a Specific File [ ^ ]

To restrict access to a specific file, add the following code block and edit the file name, “secretfile.jpg”, with the name of the file that you wish to protect:

# prevent viewing of a specific file
<files secretfile.jpg>
 order allow,deny
 deny from all
</files>

Prevent acess to multiple file types [ ^ ]

To restrict access to a variety of file types, add the following code block and edit the file types within parentheses to match the extensions of any files that you wish to protect:

<FilesMatch "\.(htaccess|htpasswd|ini|phps|fla|psd|log|sh)$">
 Order Allow,Deny
 Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Prevent Unauthorized Directory Browsing [ ^ ]

Prevent unauthorized directory browsing by instructing the server to serve a “xxx Forbidden - Authorization Required” message for any request to view a directory. For example, if your site is missing it’s default index page, everything within the root of your site will be accessible to all visitors. To prevent this, include the following htaccess rule:

# disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes

Conversely, to enable directory browsing, use the following directive:

# enable directory browsing
Options All +Indexes

Likewise, this rule will prevent the server from listing directory contents:

# prevent folder listing
IndexIgnore *

And, finally, the IndexIgnore directive may be used to prevent the display of select file types:

# prevent display of select file types
IndexIgnore *.wmv *.mp4 *.avi *.etc

Change Default Index Page [ ^ ]

This rule tells the server to search for and serve “business.html” as the default directory index. This rule must exist in the htaccess files of the root directory for which you wish to replace the default index file (e.g., “index.html”):

# serve alternate default index page
DirectoryIndex business.html

This rule is similar, only in this case, the server will scan the root directory for the listed files and serve the first match it encounters. The list is read from left to right:

# serve first available alternate default index page from series
DirectoryIndex filename.html index.cgi index.pl default.htm

Disguise Script Extensions [ ^ ]

To enhance security, disguise scripting languages by replacing actual script extensions with dummy extensions of your choosing. For example, to change the “.foo” extension to “.php”, add the following line to your htaccess file and rename all affected files accordingly:

# serve foo files as php files
AddType application/x-httpd-php .foo

# serve foo files as cgi files
AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .foo

Limit Access to the Local Area Network (LAN) [ ^ ]

# limit access to local area network
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order deny,allow
 deny from all
 allow from 192.168.0.0/33
</Limit>

Secure Directories by IP Address and/or Domain [ ^ ]

In the following example, all IP addresses are allowed access except for 12.345.67.890 and domain.com:

# allow all except those indicated here
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order allow,deny
 allow from all
 deny from 12.345.67.890
 deny from .*domain\.com.*
</Limit>

In the following example, all IP addresses are denied access except for 12.345.67.890 and domain.com:

# deny all except those indicated here
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order deny,allow
 deny from all
 allow from 12.345.67.890
 allow from .*domain\.com.*
</Limit>

This is how to block unwanted visitors based on the referring domain. You can also save bandwidth by blocking specific file types — such as .jpg, .zip, .mp3, .mpg — from specific referring domains. Simply replace “scumbag” and “wormhole” with the offending domains of your choice:

# block visitors referred from indicated domains
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteEngine on
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} scumbag\.com [NC,OR]
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} wormhole\.com [NC,OR]
 RewriteRule .* - [F]
</ifModule>

Prevent or allow domain access for a specified range of IP addresses [ ^ ]

There are several effective ways to block a range of IP addresses via htaccess. This first method blocks an IP range specified by their CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) number. This method is useful for blocking mega-spammers such as RIPE, Optinet, and others. If, for example, you find yourself adding line after line of Apache deny directives for addresses beginning with the same first few numbers, choose one of them and try a whois lookup. Listed within the whois results will be the CIDR value representing every IP address associated with that particular network. Thus, blocking via CIDR is an effective way to eloquently prevent all IP instances of the offender from accessing your site. Here is a generalized example for blocking by CIDR (edit values to suit your needs):

# block IP range by CIDR number
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order allow,deny
 allow from all
 deny from 10.1.0.0/16
 deny from 80.0.0/8
</Limit>

Likewise, to allow an IP range by CIDR number:

# allow IP range by CIDR number
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order deny,allow
 deny from all
 allow from 10.1.0.0/16
 allow from 80.0.0/8
</Limit>

Another effective way to block an entire range of IP addresses involves truncating digits until the desired range is represented. As an IP address is read from left to right, its value represents an increasingly specific address. For example, a fictitious IP address of 99.88.77.66 would designate some uniquely specific IP address. Now, if we remove the last two digits (66) from the address, it would represent any address beginning with the remaining digits. That is, 99.88.77 represents 99.88.77.1, 99.88.77.2, … 99.88.77.99, …etc. Likewise, if we then remove another pair of digits from the address, its range suddenly widens to represent every IP address 99.88.x.y, where x and y represent any valid set of IP address values (i.e., you would block 256*256 = 65,536 unique IP addresses). Following this logic, it is possible to block an entire range of IP addresses to varying degrees of specificity. Here are few generalized lines exemplifying proper htaccess syntax (edit values to suit your needs):

# block IP range by address truncation
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order allow,deny
 allow from all
 deny from 99.88.77.66
 deny from 99.88.77.*
 deny from 99.88.*.*
 deny from 99.*.*.*
</Limit>

Likewise, to allow an IP range by address truncation:

# allow IP range by address truncation
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order deny,allow
 deny from all
 allow from 99.88.77.66
 allow from 99.88.77.*
 allow from 99.88.*.*
 allow from 99.*.*.*
</Limit>

Block or allow multiple IP addresses on one line [ ^ ]

Save a little space by blocking multiple IP addresses or ranges on one line. Here are few examples (edit values to suit your needs): 

# block two unique IP addresses
deny from 99.88.77.66 11.22.33.44
# block three ranges of IP addresses
deny from 99.88 99.88.77 11.22.33

Likewise, to allow multiple IP addresses or ranges on one line:

# allow two unique IP addresses
allow from 99.88.77.66 11.22.33.44
# allow three ranges of IP addresses
allow from 99.88 99.88.77 11.22.33

Miscellaneous rules for blocking and allowing IP addresses [ ^ ]

Here are few miscellaneous rules for blocking various types of IP addresses. These rules may be adapted to allow the specified IP values by simply changing the deny directive to allow. Check ’em out (edit values to suit your needs): 

# block a partial domain via network/netmask values
deny from 99.1.0.0/255.255.0.0

# block a single domain
deny from 99.88.77.66

# block domain.com but allow sub.domain.com
order deny,allow
deny from domain.com
allow from sub.domain.com

Stop Hotlinking, Serve Alternate Content [ ^ ]

To serve ‘em some unexpected alternate content when hotlinking is detected, employ the following code, which will protect all files of the types included in the last line (add more types as needed). Remember to replace the dummy path names with real ones. Also, the name of the nasty image being served in this case is “eatme.jpe”, as indicated in the line containing the RewriteRule. Please advise that this method will also block services such as FeedBurner from accessing your images.

# stop hotlinking and serve alternate content
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteEngine on
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domain\.com/.*$ [NC]
 RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.domain.com/eatme.jpe [R,NC,L]
</ifModule>

Note: To deliver a standard (or custom, if configured) error page instead of some nasty image of the Fonz, replace the line containing the RewriteRule in the above htaccess directive with the following line:

# serve a standard 403 forbidden error page
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg)$ - [F,L]

Note: To grant linking permission to a site other than yours, insert this code block after the line containing the “domain.com” string. Remember to replace “goodsite.com” with the actual site domain:

# allow linking from the following site
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?goodsite\.com/.*$ [NC]

Block Evil Robots, Site Rippers, and Offline Browsers [ ^ ]

Eliminate some of the unwanted scum from your userspace by injecting this handy block of code. After such, any listed agents will be denied access and receive an error message instead. Please advise that there are much more comprehensive lists available this example has been truncated for business purposes. Note: DO NOT include the “[OR]” on the very last RewriteCond or your server will crash, delivering “500 Errors” to all page requests.

# deny access to evil robots site rippers offline browsers and other nasty scum
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Anarchie [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ASPSeek [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^attach [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^autoemailspider [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Xaldon\ WebSpider [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Xenu [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus.*Webster [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus
RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

Or, instead of delivering a friendly error message (i.e., the last line), send these bad boys to the hellish website of your choice by replacing the RewriteRule in the last line with one of the following two examples:

# send em to a hellish website of your choice
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.hellish-website.com [R,L]

Or, to send em to a virtual blackhole of fake email addresses:

# send em to a virtual blackhole of fake email addresses
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://english-61925045732.spampoison.com [R,L]

You may also include specific referrers to your blacklist by using HTTP_REFERER. Here, we use the infamously scummy domain, “iaea.org” as our blocked example, and we use “yourdomain” as your domain (the domain to which you are blocking iaea.org):

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://www.iaea.org$
RewriteRule !^http://[^/.]\.yourdomain\.com.* - [F,L]

More Stupid Blocking Tricks [ ^ ]

Note: Although these redirect techniques are aimed at blocking and redirecting nasty scumsites, the directives may also be employed for friendly redirection purposes:

# redirect any request for anything from spamsite to differentspamsite
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*spamsite.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .* http://www.differentspamsite.com [R]

# redirect all requests from spamsite to an image of something at differentspamsite
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*spamsite.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .* http://www.differentspamsite/something.jpg [R]

# redirect traffic from a certain address or range of addresses to another site
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} 192.168.10.*
RewriteRule .* http://www.differentspamsite.com/index.html [R]

Even More Scum-Blocking Tricks [ ^ ]

Here is a step-by-step series of code blocks that should equip you with enough knowledge to block any/all necessary entities. Read through the set of code blocks, observe the patterns, and then copy, combine and customize to suit your specific scum-blocking needs:

# set variables for user agents and referers and ip addresses
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent ".*(user-agent-you-want-to-block|php/perl).*" BlockedAgent
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ".*(block-this-referrer|and-this-referrer|and-this-referrer).*" BlockedReferer
SetEnvIfNoCase REMOTE_ADDR ".*(666.666.66.0|22.22.22.222|999.999.99.999).*" BlockedAddress

# set variable for any class B network coming from a given netblock
SetEnvIfNoCase REMOTE_ADDR "66.154.*" BlockedAddress

# set variable for two class B networks 198.25.0.0 and 198.26.0.0
SetEnvIfNoCase REMOTE_ADDR "198.2(5|6)\..*" BlockedAddress

# deny any matches from above and send a 403 denied
<Limit GET POST PUT>
 order deny,allow
 deny from env=BlockedAgent
 deny from env=BlockedReferer
 deny from env=BlockedAddress
 allow from all
</Limit>

Password-Protect Directories [ ^ ]

Here is an excellent online tool for generating the necessary elements for a password-protected directory:

# password protect directories
htaccess Password Generator

Password-protect Files, Directories, and More.. [ ^ ]

Secure site contents by requiring user authentication for specified files and/or directories. The first example shows how to password-protect any single file type that is present beneath the directory which houses the htaccess rule. The second rule employs the FilesMatch directive to protect any/all files which match any of the specified character strings. The third rule demonstrates how to protect an entire directory. The fourth set of rules provides password-protection for all IP’s except those specified. Remember to edit these rules according to your specific needs.

# password-protect single file
<Files secure.php>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Prompt"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Files>

# password-protect multiple files
<FilesMatch "^(execute|index|secure|insanity|biscuit)*$">
AuthType basic
AuthName "Development"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

# password-protect the directory in which this htaccess rule resides
AuthType basic
AuthName "This directory is protected"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user

# password-protect directory for every IP except the one specified
# place in htaccess file of a directory to protect that entire directory
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Personal"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Allow from 99.88.77.66
Satisfy Any

Require SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) [ ^ ]

Here is an excellent method for requiring SSL (via askapache.com 3):

# require SSL
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "domain.tld"
ErrorDocument 403 https://domain.tld

# require SSL without mod_ssl
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

Automatically CHMOD Various File Types [ ^ ]

This method is great for ensuring the CHMOD settings for various file types. Employ the following rules in the root htaccess file to affect all specified file types, or place in a specific directory to affect only those files (edit file types according to your needs):

# ensure CHMOD settings for specified file types
# remember to never set CHMOD 777 unless you know what you are doing
# files requiring write access should use CHMOD 766 rather than 777
# keep specific file types private by setting their CHMOD to 400
chmod .htpasswd files 640
chmod .htaccess files 644
chmod php files 600

Disguise all file extensions [ ^ ]

This method will disguise all file types (i.e., any file extension) and present them as .php files (or whichever extension you choose):

# diguise all file extensions as php
ForceType application/x-httpd-php

Protect against denial-of-service (DOS) attacks by limiting file upload size [ ^ ]

One method to help protect your server against DOS attacks involves limiting the maximum allowable size for file uploads. Here, we are limiting file upload size to 10240000 bytes, which is equivalent to around 10 megabytes. For this rule, file sizes are expressed in bytes. Check here for help with various file size conversions. Note: this code is only useful if you actually allow users to upload files to your site.

# protect against DOS attacks by limiting file upload size
LimitRequestBody 10240000

Secure directories by disabling execution of scripts [ ^ ]

Prevent malicious brainiacs from actively scripting secure directories by adding the following rules to the representative htaccess file (edit file types to suit your needs):

# secure directory by disabling script execution
AddHandler cgi-script .php .pl .py .jsp .asp .htm .shtml .sh .cgi
Options -ExecCGI
Usability Tricks [ ^ ]

Minimize CSS Image Flicker in IE6 [ ^ ]

Add the following htaccess rules to minimize or even eliminate CSS background-image “flickering” in MSIE6:

# minimize image flicker in IE6
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/gif A2592000
ExpiresByType image/jpg A2592000
ExpiresByType image/png A2592000

Deploy Custom Error Pages [ ^ ]

Replicate the following patterns to serve your own set of custom error pages. Simply replace the “/errors/###.html” with the correct path and file name. Also change the “###” preceding the path to summon pages for other errors. Note: your custom error pages must be larger than 512 bytes in size or they will be completely ignored by Internet Explorer:

# serve custom error pages
ErrorDocument 400 /errors/400.html
ErrorDocument 401 /errors/401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /errors/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.html
ErrorDocument 500 /errors/500.html

Provide a Universal Error Document [ ^ ]

# provide a universal error document
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /dir/error.php [L]

Employ Basic URL Spelling Check [ ^ ]

This bit of voodoo will auto-correct simple spelling errors in the URL:

# automatically corect simple speling erors
<IfModule mod_speling.c>
 CheckSpelling On
</IfModule>

Instruct browser to download multimedia files rather than display them [ ^ ]

Here is a useful method for delivering multimedia file downloads to your users. Typically, browsers will attempt to play or stream such files when direct links are clicked. With this method, provide a link to a multimedia file and a dialogue box will provide users the choice of saving the file or opening it. Here are a few htaccess rules demonstrating the technique (edit file types according to your specific needs):

# instruct browser to download multimedia files
AddType application/octet-stream .avi
AddType application/octet-stream .mpg
AddType application/octet-stream .wmv
AddType application/octet-stream .mp3

Instruct server to display source code for dynamic file types [ ^ ]

There are many situations where site owners may wish to display the contents of a dynamic file rather than executing it as a script. To exercise this useful technique, create a directory in which to place dynamic files that should be displayed rather than executed, and add the following line of code to the htaccess file belonging to that directory. This method is known to work for .pl, .py, and .cgi file-types. Here it is:

RemoveHandler cgi-script .pl .py .cgi

Redirect visitors to a temporary site during site development [ ^ ]

During web development, maintenance, or repair, send your visitors to an alternate site while retaining full access for yourself. This is a very useful technique for preventing visitor confusion or dismay during those awkward, web-development moments. Here are the generalized htaccess rules to do it (edit values to suit your needs):

# redirect all visitors to alternate site but retain full access for you
ErrorDocument 403 http://www.alternate-site.com
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 99.88.77.66

Provide a password prompt for visitors during site development [ ^ ]

Here is another possible solution for "hiding" your site during those private, site-under-construction moments. Here we are instructing Apache to provide visitors with a password prompt while providing open access to any specifically indicated IP addresses or URL’s. Edit the following code according to your IP address and other development requirements (thanks to Caleb at askapache.com for sharing this trick 3):

# password prompt for visitors
AuthType basic
AuthName "This site is currently under construction"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user
# allow webmaster and any others open access
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 111.222.33.4
Allow from favorite.validation/services/
Allow from googlebot.com
Satisfy Any

Prevent file or directory access according to specified time periods [ ^ ]

Prevent viewing of all pictures of Fonzi during the midnight hour — or any files during any time period — by using this handy htaccess ruleset:

# prevent access during the midnight hour
RewriteCond %{TIME_HOUR} ^12$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F,L]

# prevent access throughout the afternoon
RewriteCond %{TIME_HOUR} ^(12|13|14|15)$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F,L]
Redirect Tricks [ ^ ]

Important Note About Redirecting via mod_rewrite [ ^ ]

For all redirects using the mod_rewrite directive, it is necessary to have the RewriteEngine enabled. It is common practice to enable the mod_rewrite directive in either the server configuration file or at the top of the site’s root htaccess file. If the mod_rewrite directive is not included in either of these two places, it should be included as the first line in any code block that utilizes a rewrite function (i.e., mod_rewrite), but only needs to be included once for each htaccess file. The proper mod_rewrite directive is included here for your convenience, but may or may not also be included within some of the code blocks provided in this article:

# initialize and enable rewrite engine
RewriteEngine on

Redirect from http://www.domain.com to http://domain.com [ ^ ]

This method uses a “301 redirect” to establish a permanent redirect from the “www-version” of a domain to its respectively corresponding “non-www version”. Be sure to test immediately after preparing 301 redirects and remove it immediately if any errors occur. Use a “server header checker” to confirm a positive 301 response. Further, always include a trailing slash “/” when linking directories. Finally, be consistent with the “www” in all links (either use it always or never).

# permanently redirect from www domain to non-www domain
RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.domain\.tld$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.tld/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect from http://old-domain.com to http://new-domain.com [ ^ ]

For a basic domain change from “old-domain.com” to “new-domain.com” (and folder/file names have not been changed), use the Rewrite rule to remap the old domain to the new domain. When checking the redirect live, the old domain may appear in the browser’s address bar. Simply check an image path (right-click an image and select “properties”) to verify proper redirection. Remember to check your site thoroughly after implementing this redirect.

# redirect from old domain to new domain
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect String Variations to a Specific Address [ ^ ]

For example, if we wanted to redirect any requests containing the character string, “perish”, to our main page at http://perishablepress.com/, we would replace “some-string” with “perish” in the following code block:

# redirect any variations of a specific character string to a specific address
RewriteRule ^some-string http://www.domain.com/index.php/blog/target [R]

Here are two other methods for accomplishing string-related mapping tasks:

# map URL variations to the same directory on the same server
AliasMatch ^/director(y|ies) /www/docs/target

# map URL variations to the same directory on a different server
RedirectMatch ^/[dD]irector(y|ies) http://domain.com

Other Fantastic Redirect Tricks [ ^ ]

Redirect an entire site via 301:

# redirect an entire site via 301
redirect 301 / http://www.domain.com/

Redirect a specific file via 301:

# redirect a specific file via 301
redirect 301 /current/currentfile.html http://www.newdomain.com/new/newfile.html

Redirect an entire site via permanent redirect:

# redirect an entire site via permanent redirect
Redirect permanent / http://www.domain.com/

Redirect a page or directory via permanent redirect:

# redirect a page or directory
Redirect permanent old_file.html http://www.new-domain.com/new_file.html
Redirect permanent /old_directory/ http://www.new-domain.com/new_directory/

Redirect a file using RedirectMatch:

# redirect a file using RedirectMatch
RedirectMatch 301 ^.*$ http://www.domain.com/index.html

Note: When redirecting specific files, use Apache‘s Redirect rule for files within the same domain. Use Apache‘s RewriteRule for any domains, especially if they are different. The RewriteRule is more powerful than the Redirect rule, and thus should serve you more effectively.

Thus, use the following for a stronger, harder page redirection (first line redirects a file, second line a directory, and third a domain):

# redirect files directories and domains via RewriteRule
RewriteRule http://old-domain.com/old-file.html http://new-domain.com/new-file.html
RewriteRule http://old-domain.com/old-dir/ http://new-domain.com/new-dir/
RewriteRule http://old-domain.com/ http://new-domain.com/

Send visitors to a subdomain [ ^ ]

This rule will ensure that all visitors are viewing pages via the subdomain of your choice. Edit the "subdomain", "domain", and "tld" to match your subdomain, domain, and top-level domain respectively:

# send visitors to a subdomain
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^subdomain\.domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ http://subdomain.domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]

More fun with RewriteCond and RewriteRule [ ^ ]

# rewrite only if the file is not found
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.+)special\.html?$ cgi-bin/special/special-html/$1

# rewrite only if an image is not found
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule images/special/(.*).gif cgi-bin/special/mkgif?$1

# seo-friendly rewrite rules for various directories
RewriteRule ^(.*)/aud/(.*)$ $1/audio-files/$2 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/img/(.*)$ $1/image-files/$2 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/fla/(.*)$ $1/flash-files/$2 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/vid/(.*)$ $1/video-files/$2 [L,R=301]

# broswer sniffing via htaccess environmental variables
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla.*
RewriteRule ^/$ /index-for-mozilla.html [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Lynx.*
RewriteRule ^/$ /index-for-lynx.html [L]
RewriteRule ^/$ /index-for-all-others.html [L]

# redirect query to Google search
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .google\.php*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ^http://www.google.com/search?q=$1 [R,NC,L]

# deny request according to the request method
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK|OPTIONS|HEAD)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F]

# redirect uploads to a better place
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(PUT|POST)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cgi-bin/upload-processor.cgi?p=$1 [L,QSA]

More fun with Redirect 301 and RedirectMatch 301 [ ^ ]

# seo friendly redirect for a single file
Redirect 301 /old-dir/old-file.html http://domain.com/new-dir/new-file.html

# seo friendly redirect for multiple files
# redirects all files in dir directory with first letters xyz
RedirectMatch 301 /dir/xyz(.*) http://domain.com/$1

# seo friendly redirect entire site to a different domain
Redirect 301 / http://different-domain.com
WordPress Tricks [ ^ ]

Secure WordPress Contact Forms [ ^ ]

Protect your insecure WordPress contact forms against online unrighteousness by verifying the domain from whence the form is called. Remember to replace the “domain.com” and “contact.php” with your domain and contact-form file names, respectively.

# secure wordpress contact forms via referrer check
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.domain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_POST} .*contact.php$
RewriteRule .* - [F]

WordPress Permalinks [ ^ ]

In our article, The htaccess rules for all WordPress Permalinks, we revealed the precise htaccess directives used by the WordPress blogging platform for permalink functionality. Here, for the sake of completeness, we repeat the directives only. For more details please refer to the original article:

If WordPress is installed in the site’s root directory, WordPress creates and uses the following htaccess directives:

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

If WordPress is installed in some subdirectory “foo”, WordPress creates and uses the following htaccess directives:

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

Activate SSI for HTML/SHTML file types: [ ^ ]

# activate SSI for HTML and or SHTML file types
AddType text/html .html
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .html
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .htm

Grant CGI access in a specific directory: [ ^ ]

# grant CGI access in a specific directory
Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler cgi-script cgi pl
# to enable all scripts in a directory use the following
SetHandler cgi-script

Disable magic_quotes_gpc for PHP enabled servers: [ ^ ]

# turn off magic_quotes_gpc for PHP enabled servers
<ifmodule mod_php4.c>
 php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off
</ifmodule>

Enable MD5 digests: [ ^ ]

Note: enabling this option may result in a relative decrease in server performance.

# enable MD5 digests via ContentDigest
ContentDigest On

Expression Engine Tricks: [ ^ ]

# send Atom and RSS requests to the site docroot to be rewritten for ExpressionEngine
RewriteRule .*atom.xml$ http://www.yoursite.com/index.php/weblog/rss_atom/ [R]
RewriteRule .*rss.xml$ http://www.yoursite.com/index.php/weblog/rss_2.0/ [R]

# cause all requests for index.html to be rewritten for ExpressionEngine
RewriteRule /.*index.html$ http://www.domain.com/index.php [R]
References
1 Wikipedia htaccess Resource
2 Apache Cookbook
3 Ultimate htaccess Article
More on regular expressions
Apache htaccess Reference
Apache htaccess Tutorial
Apache mod_rewrite
htaccess Forum
Behind the Scenes with htaccess
Automatic htaccess file generator
About this article

This is article #15, posted by Jeff Starr on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 @ 7:07am. Categorized as Websites & tagged with apache, htaccess, mod_rewrite, notes, plus, tricks, upgrade, WordPress. Updated on April 02, 2007. Visited 301607 times. 
Subscribe Bookmark 
Related articles
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Stupid htaccess Trick: Enable File or Directory Access to Your Password-Protected Site
htaccess Combo Pack: WordPress Permalinks and non-www Redirect
Permanently Redirect a Specific IP Request for a Single Page via htaccess
Redirect All (Broken) Links from any Domain via HTAccess
HTAccess Spring Cleaning 2009
Dialogue

116 Responses Jump to comment form

1 • Lead

June 9, 2006 at 12:16 pm

Very nice… this is just the overview that pretty much says it all…. Great work !

2 • Perishable

June 11, 2006 at 1:55 pm

My pleasure! :)

3 • Deep Singh

August 1, 2006 at 8:56 am

Absolutely good contents really helpful

4 • Perishable

August 1, 2006 at 12:00 pm

At your service! In fact, I appreciate the kind remarks so much that I am planning to update this post with even more stupid htaccess tricks, including new redirect and blocking tips as well as some very useful character information.

5 • m0n

August 21, 2006 at 11:11 am

UPDATE: We have completely rewritten this entire article, which now includes almost twice as many stupid htaccess tricks, a nice library of regex character definitions, and even a handy table of contents for easy navigation. - Enjoy!

6 • mattems

August 24, 2006 at 3:49 pm

excellent!! just what i needed to get through those stupid htaccess issues !!

great work!

7 • Perishable

August 27, 2006 at 4:22 pm

You are too kind, mattems!

8 • scandiman

September 4, 2006 at 10:44 pm

Fantastic resource! Helped resolve many questions, but I remain totally stumped on one rewrite I am trying to accomplish.

Currently, I have a CMS that does Search Engine Friendly URLs using the following htaccess code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

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

A click to the home page will give me the URL "mydomain.com/index.html"

I am trying to rewrite that URL to just give me "mydomain.com/" Is this possible in the htaccess file considering the CMS is using it to rewrite the URL’s as well? Or should I look into hacking the CMS?

Any help from an htaccess guru is appreciated!

9 • Perishable

September 6, 2006 at 7:42 am

Hei scandiman,

Have you tried:

# redirect from index.html to /
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.html\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.html$ http://mydomain.com/ [R=301,L]

Employing the "THE_REQUEST" server variable, the pattern will match against the client request header only for the original URI request, thereby restricting redirection to the default index page.

10 • H.Walther

November 23, 2006 at 1:11 am

This is a great article! Thank you very much!!!

Instead of disguiseing script extensions, what is the best way to completely remove it? Say www.foo.com/foo.php should be www.foo.com/foo?

11 • Randy Gille

November 23, 2006 at 12:35 pm

Email me here if you need any help with this:

slayer1001@gmail.com

Thanks!

12 • Douglas Kemp

December 5, 2006 at 3:00 am

Absolutely brilliat work mate, this is a fanstasic .htacess resource.

13 • Gabe Trann

December 5, 2006 at 6:13 am

Yes this is by far probably one of the best htaccess tuts.. nice work!

Oh heres another good one -
http://www.askapache.com/2006/htaccess/
htaccesselite-ultimate-htaccess-article.html.

14 • Perishable

December 5, 2006 at 8:09 am

Thank you both for your encouraging comments — they inspire us to expand further the scope of this htaccess reference. In fact, we have already written up several additional rules and examples, and are simply waiting for a break in the schedule to incorporate them here. 

Happy Holidays!

15 • Maria Langer

December 6, 2006 at 12:54 am

Thanks so much for putting up this very easy to understand guide!

16 • MrLeN

December 26, 2006 at 3:25 am

Is it possible to redirect people from a particular country? ie: I might want people who live in china to be recognised and automatically redirected to a chinese page, or people who libe in germany to be automatically redirected to a german page.

17 • Perishable

December 27, 2006 at 9:47 am

MrLeN,
Yes, of course.. it is possible to execute country-specific redirects. If you have GeoIP Apache API configured on your server, simply extrapolate the following:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{ENV:GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE} MX [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ index.mx.php [L]

This method employs country codes (we used Mexico in the example).

Of course, you could also redirect based on country-specific TLD or even IP addresses.

18 • Bad Monkey

December 28, 2006 at 8:08 pm

I am trying to deny from a particular host, and for a time I even want to deny an entire top-level domain.
E.g. deny from .nz
(new zealand)
But it does not work. Access is still allowed.
Similarly deny from myhost.ext does not work.
It does work with my IP.
Any ideas?

19 • Perishable

December 30, 2006 at 9:24 am

Bad Monkey,
I need to see the htaccess code you are using.. htaccess rules are super-sensitive — many problems are solved by simply correcting subtle errors in syntax, order, etc.

20 • Bad Monkey

December 30, 2006 at 5:13 pm

Simply one line…
deny from 124.197.12.164
works, that is my IP and it bans me, but
deny from .nz
or
deny from .callplus.net.nz
(my host) does not.
Reverse DNS on my ip gives
124-197-12-164.callplus.net.nz
so what am I missing?

21 • Perishable

January 1, 2007 at 11:20 am

You may want to try it within the following context:

<Limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
allow from all
deny from .nz
deny from .callplus.net.nz
</Limit>

If that still does not work, you might try a RewriteRule instead:

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^(.*)\.nz [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]

22 • css menus

January 12, 2007 at 7:47 am

nice post, helped a lot, thank you!

23 • Perishable

January 14, 2007 at 4:01 pm

My pleasure!

24 • john

February 14, 2007 at 10:36 am

exceedingly helpful list for a newb like me.

thank you!

25 • Perishable

February 14, 2007 at 11:34 am

Thank you for kind words, john! It is our pleasure to help people with htaccess, and the positive feedback really inspires us to do our best.. ;)
- Cheers!

26 • Iiro Krankka

February 25, 2007 at 2:58 am

You rock, dude! This is most comprehensive list of tricks I’ve ever seen!

27 • joko

March 21, 2007 at 4:07 am

thanks for the trick. even a should translate to my language first.regards

28 • K-len

April 4, 2007 at 7:46 am

how to redirect
http://abc.com
to
http://abc.com/abc/
I’ve tried your method but nothing happen.

29 • Vlad

April 15, 2007 at 8:19 am

lol is it htaccess time? Found 7 htaccess tips yesterday and now stumble on this post … Great work, recently struggled with severe performance problems so this is indeed helpful.

30 • Riquez

April 22, 2007 at 6:09 pm

This page is an awesome resource. Thank you.
Bookmarked

31 • sus

April 30, 2007 at 8:49 am

Very Nice. Thank you.

32 • Jason Wagner

May 10, 2007 at 8:16 pm

Omg… thank you SOOO MUCH!!!! I’ve been looking for a resource like this one for MONTHS. Bookmarked this on my del.icio.us real quick…

THANK YOU!! :)

33 • Larry Adamiec

May 11, 2007 at 6:58 pm

I am trying to password protect a single file in a directory but the entire directory is being protected. Here are the contents of the .htaccess file:

AuthType Basic
AuthName SecuredWebPages
AuthUserFile /opt/content/web/sites/ck/htaccess_users/mentor
require valid-user

I am using Sun Java Web Server Version 6.1 as the web server on a Solaris 10 server. What am I doing wrong?

34 • Perishable

May 15, 2007 at 11:59 am

Larry,

You need to target the file to be protected with a <Files secure.php> container, where "secure.php" is the target file. Here is an example:

<Files secure.php>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Prompt"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Files>

[ more information ]

35 • Jer

May 18, 2007 at 8:56 am

You are a god.

36 • dman

May 23, 2007 at 8:44 am

Great Information!
Thanks for taking time to put this informative post together.
———-
but I do have a stumper for you. My BIG problem are these Hotlinking thieves. Do you know that my host just sent me a $2000 bandwidth bill for April? And I cant afford that. So we dug a little and found that my images & mpg clips were being Hotlinked. Not just a little, it was ALOT! and I’ve tried to do everything I can, I even bought AHL from antihotlinking.com to protect my mpg clips, but these Leechers are STILL getting through. So I’m sitting here the other day frustrated out of my mind - and something came to me, but before I tell you what came to me, I’ve pasted my present .htaccess code below (I only changed the domains):
——————————-

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://mydomain.tld.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.mydomain.tld.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?myfriendspage.tld(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|bmp|wmv|mpg)$ http://www.mydomain.tld [R,NC]
ErrorDocument 400 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
ErrorDocument 401 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
ErrorDocument 500 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
ErrorDocument 403 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
ErrorDocument 503 http://www.myaffiliate.tld
order allow,deny
allow from all

——————————-

I’ve obviously got major problems in the code above. And I have no clue where or what to even do about it.

Oh - sorry, let me get back to that BIG idea that came to me. Ya see - in my page source code, I can either use a “reletive” or the “full” path to my images & mpgs. But these Hotlinkers have to use the “full” path if they want to hotlink anything. So is there a way to configure the .htaccess code to ONLY allow from “reletive” paths which obviously would be from me? Then - block or redirect any hotlinker using pages with “Full” paths to my files? I dont know. Cause to me, even if theres no referrer info or whatever, that hotlinker MUST use the full path to my files. I mean the server must be able to differentiate between someone (hotlinker) trying to get in to my server externally as opposed to someone internally - for example - like one of my legitimate customers whose landed on one of my advertisment pages already.. Wow I really hope this all makes sense. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks again,
Dman

37 • Andy Moore

May 27, 2007 at 6:20 pm

That’s simply the best collection of htaccess tricks I’ve ever seen!

38 • Perishable

May 28, 2007 at 3:11 pm

dman,
Of course! For more information, check out this section of our article. It outlines the entire process that seems to work fine for just about everyone on the Internet (you need to be running Apache, of course). As for your idea concerning relative paths, that is essentially the same method employed by the htaccess rules outlined in the linked section. All relative links on a domain must share the same domain (by definition). Therefore, if we grant access only to a specific domain (or domains), only referrers from the allowed domain have access, regardless of the type of link. I hope this helps!

39 • DLa

May 28, 2007 at 10:33 pm

Thank you for taking the time to assemble this incredible htaccess resource. We continue to use several of these extremely helpful htaccess tricks on our site. Two toots to the wind!

40 • 0racle

May 29, 2007 at 1:01 am

Sir Perishable,
A successful run, wouldn’t you say? This article has enjoyed plenty of use! Now, don’t you think it’s time to publish the bleeding thing and become rich and famous? Ha! Don’t make me laugh, Perishable. Nevertheless, screaming applause for these wonderfully stupid htaccess tricks!

41 • Perishable

May 29, 2007 at 6:42 am

Indeed! Actually, I have been thinking about putting together an offline (i.e., printed) version of Stupid htaccess Tricks. Perhaps the time is growing near for something of that nature to unfold. The thing is, the article itself is a 100% free resource available anytime, anywhere. A book almost seems superfluous these days, especially when you consider actually paying for one. Who knows, maybe something will spring forth and inspire me to publish. Stay tuned..

42 • August Klotz

May 29, 2007 at 8:47 am

Jeff,
Thank you for providing this excellent htaccess resource. I find the code to be top-notch, and the examples are clear, concise, and easy to understand. My only question is when are you going to share the contents of your own htaccess file for the benefit of others? I am certain it would be a valuable resource. Incidentally, I second the motion for a printed version of the article. I, for one, would be thrilled to obtain a copy!
Cheers,
August

43 • m0n

May 29, 2007 at 9:33 am

I second the motion! Let’s share the htaccess rules used for perishablepress.com. If anything, the vast htaccess ruleset blocking spammers, scrapers, and badbots would surely be helpful. As for the book idea.. sure, sounds great, but extra time seems like a luxury we just can’t afford these days.

44 • sandy

June 18, 2007 at 6:46 am

I’m a PHP developer from india. I have to work on dynamic subdomain creation process via php. I need to create folders of users who registers on site. And server platform is windows and control panel is plesk.

For time being i have created user folders like:
http://domain.tld/shop_stores/sandy/
http://domain.tld/shop_stores/mike/
http://domain.tld/shop_stores/john/

but i want to display as
http://sandy.domain.tld/
http://mike.domain.tld/
http://john.domain.tld/

Also wherever i want to give href link i will be able to give
http://sandy.domain.tld/

So can anyone please help me or guide how to do this kind of functionality.
Thanks in advance.

45 • Alison

July 13, 2007 at 9:29 am

this is very useful content. I have one issue to which I have not been able to find a solution. I want a permanent redirect to happen for a single page when requested from a specific IP. Example:

Visitor from IP: 192:168:0:1
requests for page name www.url.com/abc.htm
I want him to go to www.url.com/xyz.htm

Visitors for all other IP’s should NOT get redirected.

Can this be accomplished using htaccess file?

46 • Perishable

July 15, 2007 at 4:39 pm

Alison,

Sure, try using this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} 123\.123\.123\.123
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /requested-page\.html$
RewriteRule .* /just-for-you.html [R=301,L]

Simply edit the IP address, requested page, and redirect page.
Should perform exactly as specified.

47 • John Joe

July 20, 2007 at 11:20 am

For over 2 years I’ve requested that my host block hotlinks - and all they’ve ever managed to do is either block all images or just block Wordpress

Many thanks for the tips and tricks here - I’ve implented a few and as soon as I eat more spinach I’ll be doing it some more! Many thanks for an excellent, funny, informative article.

PS - I expect similar praise for my 2 bit site :-)

48 • sandy

July 20, 2007 at 9:26 pm

Hi Friends,

Please anybody respond to my question. Comments #81. I need it very urgent. Please give me some solution.

49 • Peter

July 21, 2007 at 4:26 am

This is a great post, thank you for sharing it.

I wonder if you could clarify something?

In the seo friendly rewrite rule for various directories, you have;

RewriteRule ^(.*)/aud/(.*)$ $1/audio-files/$2 [L,R=301]

which appears to pick up everything in the original request before “/aud/” (including the domain) and add it to the beginning of the new folder path, which makes perfect sense to me.

But, in the old domain to new domain redirect you have;

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

which also appears to pick up everything in the original request and then add it to the end of the new domain.

My confusion is why the old domain to new domain rule doesn’t end up adding the complete original request (including domain) onto the end of the new domain name, rather than just the url?

Does that make sense?

50 • Perishable

July 22, 2007 at 9:31 am

John Joe,

Thanks for the kind remarks. It is always great to get positive feedback, as you should be well aware of considering the excellence and awesomeness of your website! :)

51 • Perishable

July 22, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Peter,

If I understand you correctly, you are asking why the entire URL of the old domain is not appended to the end of the new domain..?

If so, it is an excellent question. In both RewriteRule examples, the domain is assumed, and is therefore not included in the matching variable ($1).

In the “SEO-friendly” case, the RewriteRule, considering only the URL information appearing after the domain, redirects anything matching the target string. 

Similarly, in the “old-domain to new-domain” case, the RewriteRule considers only the URL information appearing after the domain, and then redirects any matching patterns to the new domain, which must be declared in full because it is different than the local (assumed) domain.

Not sure if that made sense or not. You could also think of it this way: in either case, the RewriteRule does not match against any part of the root domain name (e.g., http://domain.tld) because it is assumed that it will be included in the URL. When the matched string is then redirected within the same domain, the domain remains assumed and does not need to be declared explicitly in the target string. 

However, when the matched string needs redirected to a different domain (as in the old-to-new redirect), the domain obviously cannot be assumed and thus must be declared.

I hope that sheds some light on the issue. Thanks for asking a question that I am sure other people have scratched their heads about.

52 • August Klotz

July 22, 2007 at 3:33 pm

You may also use RedirectMatch to redirect an old domain to a new domain:

RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://new-domain.tld/$1

This will redirect everything on the old domain to the same directory on new-domain.tld.

53 • Fakhri

July 30, 2007 at 7:31 pm

Hi,

I have a domain name with hosting on one server, but all the content of the website is hosted on a different server including HTML pages with images, javascripts and css.

What I want to achieve is that when anyone browse my website for e.g: www.abc.com it should fetch the entire content from that other website.

Remember that all the pages that could be requested doesn’t physically exists. It only contains the template. When the request arrive the other website is running an engine which reads the request and generates the page on the fly reading just the template.

I have achieved the redirection using the following rewrite rule:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.tld/render.php?$1 [P]

But the problem is with images, javascript and css because of their relative paths.

I can give the absolute paths but I don’t want any user to know about it. 

I hope I have cleared what I wanted to.

Can you help me in this regard? Its really urgent!

54 • Ray

August 9, 2007 at 10:18 am

Any help with this one appreciated (if it’s possible), I can see a soltion abobe.

I have a domain that I don’t use i.e. domain2.com. I use lots of subdomains at this domain e.g. abc.domain2.com.

I would like to redirect any visitors to domain2.com to mymainwebsite.com but leave the sub-domians fucntionling as they do now.

55 • Sony Lazarus

August 17, 2007 at 2:22 am

There is an excellent htaccess guide called Stupid htaccess tricks ,Thanks for the doc

56 • Erin

August 28, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Hi! Thanks for this great resource. I’m having trouble with some code that I copied straight from this page though. I’m referring to the missing images redirect. I’ve got a directory called “c” full of images. Once a month, these images are pruned and deleted. I’d like requests for the pruned images to be directed to another image, but the following code is only producing a 404 error:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule c/.* c/out-of-date-ticker.jpg

What’s wrong here? Thanks!

57 • Perishable

August 28, 2007 at 5:50 pm

Erin,

There are at least two problems with your code. First, because of the !-f in the second line, the rule will match only against files that do not exist. Then, the third line is telling Apache to serve the image out-of-date-ticker.jpg for all file requests, including requests for out-of-date-ticker.jpg itself. In other words, you are blocking the image you are trying to serve. There are other subtle inconsistencies as well, but you get the idea.

There are several ways to fix your code. For example, to retain as much as possible of the original formula, try something like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule c/(.*) http://domain.tld/out-of-date.jpg [R,NC,L]

Here, we have removed the exclamation point (not operator) from the second line, so that we are looking for any file that does exist. Then, in the third line, we cleaned up the syntax a little bit and resolved the infinite loop by placing the out-of-date.jpg image in the parent directory, as specified via absolute URL. Finally, we added a few useful flags, instructing the server to issue a redirect, ignore casing, and terminate rewriting, respectively.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if I may be of any further assistance.

58 • DAVID

August 31, 2007 at 8:10 am

Hi folks,
I hope somebody can help me here.
I have osCommerce website installed in directory /ceske-slovenske-potraviny/
and because I have two domains .com and .co.uk I wanted to to use RewriteCond to handle redirect.
So I want all request (even non www) to go to subdirectory of main domain www.halusky.co.uk/ceske-slovenske-potraviny/

This redirect seem to work okay, but the problem is I want password protected directory www.halusky.co.uk/ceske-slovenske-potraviny/
/protected/ and this doesnt work when I use this RewriteCond.
When RewriteCond is in place and I try to access protected directory I am redirected to page about cookies.
I know this is more OsCommerce related problem, but maybe somebody have any tips.

my htaccess
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.halusky.co.uk/ceske-slovenske-potraviny/$1 [L,R=301]

59 • Manu

August 31, 2007 at 12:29 pm

a fantastic collection of tricks! thank you!

I’ve got a question, too. I wrote a c#-program which connects to several files in a directory. It provides a user-agent-string, lets say it’s called ‘myProgram’. Now I tried to deny all user-agents but not myProgram. What I did:
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent myProgram AllowedAgent

order allow,deny
allow from env=AllowedAgent
deny from all

Unfortunately not only IE & FF are getting a 403, also my program gets this. What could I do?

60 • Yokhannan

September 1, 2007 at 6:09 pm

Hello,

I have got a website with a RSS Feed. There is this one website totally abusing my rss feed. I only know the domain name of the website, and cannot figure out the ipaddress of the hosting server.

How can I go about denying access to my rss feed for this one website??

Thanks man… killer documentation here!

61 • Perishable

September 2, 2007 at 6:16 pm

Yokhannan,

I recently published an article that covers a nearly identical topic..

With just a few modifications of the code presented in that article, we arrive at this:

# block scum domain from accessing feed
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?bad-domain\.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /your-feed\.xml$
RewriteRule .* - [F]

This code will block anything at bad-domain.com from your accessing your-feed.xml. Simply edit the names/paths to match your setup and you should be good to go.

62 • Sam

September 12, 2007 at 1:44 pm

I always found apache config files and mod_rewrite to be voodoo magic. I am glad you try to make it makes sense to folk who do not understand regular expressions.

I am really looking for a way to use mod_rewrite to map various html pages to long folder names so it looks like I have a clear directory structure.

http://mydomain.org/services.htm maps to http://mydomain.org/services. A link under services.htm should map to http://mydomain.org/services/linkname

63 • frann

September 21, 2007 at 5:06 am

This is brilliant! Thanks.

I have been trying your code for sending hotlinkers a different image, but they just get a blank, instead of my specially crafted image - which is fine!

Is there a way to prevent people rightclicking on an image and downloading it like that (in htaccess)?

64 • frann

September 21, 2007 at 10:50 am

I need to allow montastic.com to monitor the sites, is there a way to modify this:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK|OPTIONS|HEAD)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F]

so as to allow just them access?

(How did you learn all this stuff… it’s almost like you WROTE htaccess)

65 • Perishable

September 23, 2007 at 9:51 am

frann,

It is not possible to control browser behavior such as image downloading using htaccess. htaccess directives operate at the server level and do not affect content once it is delivered to the browser. Thus, once a browser has displayed images from a page, those images have already been downloaded and are available to anyone who knows how to get them. Of course, there are myriad JavaScript methods of disabling right-clicking, source-code viewing, and things of that nature if you are serious about trying to prevent people from copying your images.

As for your second question, you may need to employ an alternate approach to your strategy. Something along the lines of:

<LimitExcept GET POST>
   order deny,allow
   deny from all
   allow from montastic.com
</LimitExcept>

..which should allow normal browsing activity for everyone while preventing tracing, tracking, etc. from everyone except montastic.com.

Regards,
Jeff

66 • frann

September 23, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Well. All I can say is your genius astounds me.

67 • Claire

October 2, 2007 at 5:18 pm

another round of applause from me. 

My question is i have a folder that needs to be 777 (agggh) but will only be used as an upload place by the server. I know i can prevent naughty stuff being run in the folder, but can i actually restrict access to the server(localhost) only?! 

i think like this

   order deny,allow
   deny from all
   allow from localhost

68 • Perishable

October 3, 2007 at 7:55 am

Claire,

I have seen localhost used in such fashion, but cannot verify that it actually works. However, because localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1, you should be able to use something like this:

<Limit GET POST>
     order deny,allow
     deny from all
     allow from 127.0.0.1
</Limit>

69 • sarang

October 4, 2007 at 8:21 am

I have a folder named ‘pdf’ in the root directory containing pdf and zip files. This folder also has index file which has links to pdf and zip files. i want users to download these files through index file only. that means any direct calls to pdf and zip files should be redirected to the index file contained in the same folder.

how should i do it! please help.

70 • Perishable

October 7, 2007 at 8:40 am

sarang,

This sounds a lot like hotlink prevention. Try using something like this:

# prevent direct access to pdf and zip files
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://domain.tld/path/files/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(pdf|zip)$ http://domain.tld/path/files/index.php [R,NC,L]

Place that code in the directory containing your .pdf and .zip files. Edit the domain and path in the last two lines to suit your needs. Upload, test, and done. You may also want to disable directory browsing in general by placing this code in the root htaccess file of your site:

# disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes

No editing is required for this last bit of code. Simply upload and enjoy!

71 • John Skillings

October 15, 2007 at 10:19 am

Hi,

I am tyring to create a user friendly URL and need help with the rewrite.

The URL is of the pattern:

http://www.example.com/www/en/index.php

I would like to shorten this to:

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

I tried the following rewrite command:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/www/en/$ /$1/ [L]

This has no effect. Any help in fixing the expression is appreciated.

Thanks.

John

72 • Nathan

October 18, 2007 at 11:38 pm

My site serves some large files. Some of the download clients make multiple simultaneous requests, each request is for a different segment of the same file. Is it possible to tell Apache to honor only one request (per file) from each client?

73 • frann

October 22, 2007 at 8:45 am

I’ve been finding occasional 404s from user access codes which are banned in my .htaccess files. As, in the past, I also found ips that were banned getting through I googled for bypass .htaccess and found this:
http://www.verisign.com/security…advisories/2003/97.html

As i use php mainly, i am a bit worried by this. Have you any ideas?

74 • Perishable

October 23, 2007 at 8:48 pm

frann,

Thanks for the heads up.. I have heard a little about this elsewhere and will definitely look into it. If/when I find anything useful or relevant I will post it as soon as possible.

75 • frann

October 28, 2007 at 11:57 am

Ok, I’ve decided to tackle this in php, so I have written this include to put in all my pages. I had already stuck all the ips and uas in mySQL tables, because I have too many htaccess files to deal with manually (it just got boring). The 2 tables are just lists of ips or uas with the date added.

Hopefully, i haven’t made some stupid mistake or other. If I stop seeing these intruders, I will deem it a success…

76 • Perishable

October 28, 2007 at 3:40 pm

frann,

Well, now you have me intrigued! 

I wouldn’t suppose you would be willing to share your code with the rest of us, would you?

In any case, I read through the article you mentioned, and am planning a short post on the issue as soon as time allows. There is a vulnerability, but it is quite limited and easily prevented.

( Share that code! )

77 • frann

October 28, 2007 at 5:18 pm

Yeah, silly me…

$sitename = "mydomain.com";
$dbServer = "mysql.{$sitename}";
$dbUser = "reader";
$dbPass = "password";
$dbName = "ignorecentral";
$link = mysql_connect("$dbServer", "$dbUser", "$dbPass") or die("Could not connect");
//print "Connected successfully";
mysql_select_db("$dbName") or die("Could not select database");
//print "Database selected successfully";
$query = "select ip from ipbanlist";
$result1 = mysql_query($query);
$allbanned = mysql_num_rows($result1);
$visitor_ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
for ($j=0;$j&lt;$allbanned;$j++) {
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result1);
   if($visitor_ip == $row['ip']) {
      header("Status: 401 Unauthorized");
      exit;
   }
}
$query = "select userAgent from uabanlist";
$result2 = mysql_query($query);
$allbanned = mysql_num_rows($result2);
$visitor_ua = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
for ($j=0;$j<$allbanned;$j++) {
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result2);
   $check_ua = stripslashes($row['userAgent']);
   if(substr($visitor_ua,0,strlen($check_ua)) == $check_ua) {
      header("Status: 401 Unauthorized");
      exit;
   }
}

(note: this should work for the libwww for example)

78 • Perishable

October 28, 2007 at 5:32 pm

Ahh, very nice.. I now see what you mean! If you don’t mind, I am going to consolidate the three different code chunks into a single comment (WordPress can get pretty hungry sometimes), so that others may learn from it as well. Thanks for sharing ;)

79 • Bohackl

November 2, 2007 at 11:21 pm

Great stuff… The htaccess examples are worth their weight in gold. I’ve got this one bookmarked.

Bohack

80 • Doug

November 3, 2007 at 7:30 pm

This is an amazing post…I can’t tell you how many people I send here to learn from your examples. One htaccess solution I’ve created is combining the SSL forced acceptance, a(n) HTTP authentication, protect from spam/scraping and altering files.

This is what I’m using so far:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "password"
AuthUserFile "/home/usernamehere/.htpasswds/public_html/passwd"
require valid-user
DirectoryIndex "/mywiki/index.php"
Options All -Indexes
# permanently redirect from www domain to non-www domain
RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.domainname\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://domainname.com/$1 [R=301,L]

# require SSL
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "domainname.com"
ErrorDocument 403 https://domainname.com
# require SSL without mod_ssl
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

# Ultimate htaccess Blacklist 2 from Perishable Press
# Deny domain access to spammers and other scumbags
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ADSARobot|ah-ha... #I used all the ones you layed out! again, amazing!
RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

# deny all .htaccess, .DS_Store $hî†é and ._* (resource fork) files
<Files ~ "^\.([Hh][Tt]|[Dd][Ss]_[Ss]|[_])">
 Order allow,deny
 Deny from all
 Satisfy All
</Files>

# deny access to all .log and .comment files
<Files ~ "^.*\.([Ll][Oo][Gg]|[cC][oO][mM][mM][eE][nN][tT])">
 Order allow,deny
 Deny from all
 Satisfy All
</Files> 

[subzero]

Some of ya files will not work

use php not code tags

[riderz]

tanx for info m8

[wapmaster2]

<Files 403.shtml>
order allow,deny
allow from all
</Files>

ErrorDocument 400 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 401 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 403 /estra.php
ErrorDocument 404 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 405 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 408 /estra.php
ErrorDocument 500 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 503 /extra.php
ErrorDocument 504 /extra.php

deny from 10.10.7.203
deny from 10.3.135.134
deny from 10.1.35.109
deny from 203.145.131.164
deny from 196.192.81.34
deny from 64.255.180.100
deny from 125.18.239.135
deny from 74.86.222.81
deny from 41.220.75.19
deny from 196.46.246.21
deny from 66.36.243.15
deny from 72.27.133.15
deny from 208.131.191.63

ok thanks i can move these IPs to my extra.php but how can i relese them when they wants to surf my another subdomain.
mean these all IPs are blocked my domain and subdomain but i wana block only in main domain.........

also what is 403.shtml ?? what can i replase there

sorry if stupid question
Thanks !