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

Enquiry Now


This will close in 0 seconds