%{QUERY_STRING} the Hivemind

February 20, 2008 12:23 PM

Mod_rewrite & query strings: Just when I thought I had it figured out...

I was wanting to redirect from old files [home|fotos|foo|bar].asp with query string variables id & lid to a new & nicer URL /XXX/[index|pics|foozie|barrie], where XXX was an alias dependant on the two values. So I managed to suss out the following

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123&lid=456$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^home\.asp$ /whatever/index? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^fotos\.asp$ /whatever/pics? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^foo\.asp$ /whatever/foozie? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^bar\.asp$ /whatever/barrie? [R=301,NC,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=456&lid=789$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^home\.asp$ /whatever2/index? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^fotos\.asp$ /whatever2/pics? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^foo\.asp$ /whatever2/fooozie? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^bar\.asp$ /whatever2/barrie? [R=301,NC,L]

which works nicely. Yay me.

But now I discovered some search results where variables other than id & lid are appended to the query string. I don't give a flying rat's arse about these variables. I just want to be redirected to /whatever/index if the old request was for home.asp and id=123 & lid=456.

I've tried
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=456&lid=789.* [NC]
and
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=456&lid=789? [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=456&lid=789.* [NC]
as well as various other screwups. At this point I'm getting blurry-eyed and have lost track of all the combinations I've attempted.

What's the totally obvious mod_rewrite voodoo I've overlooked?

posted by romakimmy to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Um, have you tried just id=456&lid=789 , without anything after it?
posted by team lowkey at 12:44 PM on February 20

Just tried it, and matches the query string when the old request is for home.asp, but for the other files it's defaulting to the first set of rules. i.e. fotos.asp?id=456&lid=789 is redirecting to /whatever/pics instead of /whatever2/pics.

Should I be capturing & referencing the matched query string somehow in the RewriteRule?
posted by romakimmy at 1:06 PM on February 20

I don't have an answer for your particular question, but I have a suggestion for where you could get one:

#apache on the IRC server irc.openprojects.net

That channel has been, without question, the most useful tech help channel I've ever found on IRC. And mod_rewrite questions are 4/5 the reason I go in there. You can usually get a quick, correct answer without a lot of excessive chatter.
posted by autojack at 1:53 PM on February 20

I'm not sure I'm following what you're after anymore. Does this get you the result you want?

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=123 [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} lid=456 [NC]
RewriteRule ^home\.asp /whatever/index? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^fotos\.asp /whatever/pics? [R=301,NC,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=456 [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} lid=789 [NC]
RewriteRule ^home\.asp /whatever2/index? [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^fotos\.asp /whatever2/pics? [R=301,NC,L]
posted by team lowkey at 2:20 PM on February 20

Did you know that the RewriteCond only applies to the next RewriteRule (only the very next one, and not the remaining 3 in each section)?
posted by so at 8:02 PM on February 20

I think so has identified the problem there. You can stack several RewriteConds together, but they all only apply to the single, following RewriteRule
posted by meta_eli at 8:30 PM on February 20

Yeah, I found that and the fact that RewriteRule is matched before RewriteCond last night, but it was late to fuzz around any more & I decided to go to bed. (Not that sleeping was restful - I fucking dreamt about about mod_rewrite all night. /cranky)

Since I won't have access to RewriteMap, I'll have to throw in the towel and write a quick script today.
posted by romakimmy at 3:01 AM on February 21

rats on bad sleep!

Maybe I'm missing the obvious, but couldn't you just "unroll" your lines?

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123&lid=456$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^home\.asp$ /whatever/index? [R=301,NC,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123&lid=456$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^fotos\.asp$ /whatever/pics? [R=301,NC,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123&lid=456$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^foo\.asp$ /whatever/foozie? [R=301,NC,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123&lid=456$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^bar\.asp$ /whatever/barrie? [R=301,NC,L]

...

Of course you're right about getting into RewriteMap territory here!

coffee == good ;)

-s.
posted by so at 5:57 AM on February 21