Given below is Character Definitions for htaccess
- #: 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 Sub request: 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 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
