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 <title>Apache mod_rewrite Flags - Apache HTTP Server</title>
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 <p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.3</p>
 <img alt="" src="../images/feather.gif" /></div>
 <div class="up"><a href="./"><img title="&lt;-" alt="&lt;-" src="../images/left.gif" /></a></div>
 <div id="path">
 <a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="../">Version 2.3</a> &gt; <a href="./">Rewrite</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Apache mod_rewrite Flags</h1>
 <div class="toplang">
 <p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/rewrite/rewrite_flags.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a></p>
 </div>

 <p>This document discusses the flags which are available to the
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> directive,
 providing detailed explanations and examples. This is not necessarily
 a comprehensive list of all flags available, so be sure to also
 consult the reference documentation.</p>
 </div>
 <div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#flags">The flags</a></li>
 </ul><h3>See also</h3><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html">Module documentation</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_tech.html">Technical details</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_guide.html">Rewrite Guide - useful examples</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_guide_advanced.html">Advanced Rewrite Guide -
 advanced useful examples</a></li></ul></div>
 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
 <div class="section">
 <h2><a name="introduction" id="introduction">Introduction</a></h2>
 <p><code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code>s can have
 their behavior modified by one or more flags. Flags are included in
 square brackets at the end of the rule, and multiple flags are separated
 by commas.</p>
 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule pattern target [Flag1,Flag2,Flag3]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>The flags all have a short form, such as <code>CO</code>, as well as
 a longer form, such as <code>cookie</code>. Some flags take one or more
 arguments. Flags are not case sensitive.</p>

 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
 <div class="section">
 <h2><a name="flags" id="flags">The flags</a></h2>

 <p>Each flag has a long and short form. While it is most common to use
 the short form, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the
 long form, so that you remember what each flag is supposed to do.</p>

 <p>Presented here are each of the available flags, along with an example
 of how you might use them.</p>

 <h3><a name="flag_c" id="flag_c">C|chain</a></h3>
 <p>The [C] or [chain] flag indicates that the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> is chained to the next
 rule. That is, if the rule matches, then it is processed as usual and
 control moves on to the next rule. However, if it does not match, then
 the next rule, and any other rules that are chained together, will be
 skipped.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_co" id="flag_co">CO|cookie</a></h3>
 <p>The [CO], or [cookie] flag, allows you to set a cookie when a
 particular <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code>
 matches. The argument consists of three required fields and two optional
 fields.</p>
 <p>You must declare a name and value for the cookie to be set, and the
 domain for which you wish the cookie to be valid. You may optionally set
 the lifetime of the cookie, and the path for which it should be
 returned.</p>
 <p>By default, the lifetime of the cookie is the current browser
 session.</p>
 <p>By default, the path for which the cookie will be valid is "/" - that
 is, the entire website.</p>
 <p>Several examples are offered here:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteEngine On<br />
 RewriteRule ^/index.html - [CO=frontdoor:yes:.apache.org:1440:/]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>This rule doesn't rewrite the request (the "-" rewrite target tells
 mod_rewrite to pass the request through unchanged) but sets a cookie
 called 'frontdoor' to a value of 'yes'. The cookie is valid for any host
 in the <code>.apache.org</code> domain. It will be set to expire in 1440
 minutes (24 hours) and will be returned for all URIs.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_e" id="flag_e">E|env</a></h3>
 <p>With the [E], or [env] flag, you can set the value of an environment
 variable. Note that some environment variables may be set after the rule
 is run, thus unsetting what you have set. See <a href="../env.html">the
 Environment Variables document</a> for more details on how Environment
 variables work.</p>

 <p>The following example sets an evironment variable called 'image' to a
 value of '1' if the requested URI is an image file. Then, that
 environment variable is used to exclude those requests from the access
 log.</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule \.(png|gif|jpg) - [E=image:1]<br />
 CustomLog logs/access_log combined env=!image
 </code></p></div>

 <p>Note that this same effect can be obtained using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code>. This technique is offered as
 an example, not as a recommendation.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_f" id="flag_f">F|forbidden</a></h3>
 <p>Using the [F] flag causes Apache to return a 403 Forbidden status
 code to the client. While the same behavior can be accomplished using
 the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_access.html#deny">Deny</a></code> directive, this
 allows more flexibility in assigning a Forbidden status.</p>

 <p>The following rule will forbid <code>.exe</code> files from being
 downloaded from your server.</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule \.exe - [F]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>This example uses the "-" syntax for the rewrite target, which means
 that the requested URI is not modified. There's no reason to rewrite to
 another URI, if you're going to forbid the request.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_g" id="flag_g">G|gone</a></h3>
 <p>The [G] flag forces Apache to return a 410 Gone status with the
 response. This indicates that a resource used to be available, but is no
 longer available.</p>

 <p>As with the [F] flag, you will typically use the "-" syntax for the
 rewrite target when using the [G] flag:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule oldproduct - [G,NC]
 </code></p></div>


 <h3><a name="flag_h" id="flag_h">H|handler</a></h3>
 <p>Forces the resulting request to be handled with the specified
 handler. For example, one might use this to force all files without a
 file extension to be parsed by the php handler:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule !\. - [H=application/x-httpd-php]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>
 The regular expression above - <code>!\.</code> - will match any request
 that does not contain the literal <code>.</code> character.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_l" id="flag_l">L|last</a></h3>
 <p>The [L] flag causes <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code> to stop processing
 the rule set. In most contexts, this means that if the rule matches, no
 further rules will be processed.</p>

 <p>If you are using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> in either
 <code>.htaccess</code> files or in
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#directory">&lt;Directory&gt;</a></code> sections,
 it is important to have some understanding of how the rules are
 processed.  The simplified form of this is that once the rules have been
 processed, the rewritten request is handed back to the URL parsing
 engine to do what it may with it. It is possible that as the rewritten
 request is handled, the <code>.htaccess</code> file or
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#directory">&lt;Directory&gt;</a></code> section
 may be encountered again, and thus the ruleset may be run again from the
 start. Most commonly this will happen if one of the rules causes a
 redirect - either internal or external - causing the request process to
 start over.</p>

 <p>It is therefore important, if you are using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> directives in one of these
 contexts, that you take explicit steps to avoid rules looping, and not
 count solely on the [L] flag to terminate execution of a series of
 rules, as shown below.</p>

 <p>The example given here will rewrite any request to
 <code>index.php</code>, giving the original request as a query string
 argument to <code>index.php</code>, however, the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> ensures that if the request
 is already for <code>index.php</code>, the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> will be skipped.</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !index\.php<br />
 RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php?req=$1 [L]
 </code></p></div>


 <h3><a name="flag_n" id="flag_n">N|next</a></h3>
 <p>
 The [N] flag causes the ruleset to start over again from the top. Use
 with extreme caution, as it may result in loop.
 </p>
 <p>
 The [Next] flag could be used, for example, if you wished to replace a
 certain string or letter repeatedly in a request. The example shown here
 will replace A with B everywhere in a request, and will continue doing
 so until there are no more As to be replaced.
 </p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule (.*)A(.*) $1B$2 [N]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>You can think of this as a <code>while</code> loop: While this
 pattern still matches (i.e., while the URI still contains an
 <code>A</code>), perform this substitution (i.e., replace the
 <code>A</code> with a <code>B</code>).</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_nc" id="flag_nc">NC|nocase</a></h3>
 <p>Use of the [NC] flag causes the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> to be matched in a
 case-insensitive manner. That is, it doesn't care whether letters appear
 as upper-case or lower-case in the matched URI.</p>

 <p>In the example below, any request for an image file will be proxied
 to your dedicated image server. The match is case-insensitive, so that
 <code>.jpg</code> and <code>.JPG</code> files are both acceptable, for
 example.</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule (.*\.(jpg|gif|png))$ http://images.example.com$1 [P,NC]
 </code></p></div>


 <h3><a name="flag_ne" id="flag_ne">NE|noescape</a></h3>
 <p>By default, special characters, such as <code>&amp;</code> and
 <code>?</code>, for example, will be converted to their hexcode
 equivalent. Using the [NE] flag prevents that from happening.
 </p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule ^/anchor/(.+) /bigpage.html#$1 [NE,R]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>
 The above example will redirect <code>/anchor/xyz</code> to
 <code>/bigpage.html#xyz</code>. Omitting the [NE] will result in the #
 being converted to its hexcode equivalent, <code>%23</code>, which will
 then result in a 404 Not Found error condition.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_ns" id="flag_ns">NS|nosubreq</a></h3>
 <p>Use of the [NS] flag prevents the rule from being used on
 subrequests. For example, a page which is included using an SSI (Server
 Side Include) is a subrequest, and you may want to avoid rewrites
 happening on those subrequests.</p>

 <p>
 Images, javascript files, or css files, loaded as part of an HTML page,
 are not subrequests - the browser requests them as separate HTTP
 requests.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_p" id="flag_p">P|proxy</a></h3>
 <p>Use of the [P] flag causes the request to be handled by
 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code>, and handled via a proxy request. For
 example, if you wanted all image requests to be handled by a back-end
 image server, you might do something like the following:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule (.*)\.(jpg|gif|png) http://images.example.com$1.$2 [P]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>Use of the [P] flag implies [L] - that is, the request is immediatly
 pushed through the proxy, and any following rules will not be
 considered.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_pt" id="flag_pt">PT|passthrough</a></h3>

 <p>
 The target (or substitution string) in a RewriteRule is assumed to be a
 file path, by default. The use of the [PT] flag causes it to be treated
 as a URI instead. That is to say, the
 use of the [PT] flag causes the result of the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> to be passed back through
 URL mapping, so that location-based mappings, such as <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code>, for example, might have a chance to take
 effect.
 </p>

 <p>
 If, for example, you have an
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code>
 for /icons, and have a <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> pointing there, you should
 use the [PT] flag to ensure that the
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code> is evaluated.
 </p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 Alias /icons /usr/local/apache/icons<br />
 RewriteRule /pics/(.+)\.jpg /icons/$1.gif [PT]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>
 Omission of the [PT] flag in this case will cause the Alias to be
 ignored, resulting in a 'File not found' error being returned.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_qsa" id="flag_qsa">QSA|qsappend</a></h3>
 <p>
 When the replacement URI contains a query string, the default behavior
 of <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> is to discard
 the existing query string, and replace it with the newly generated one.
 Using the [QSA] flag causes the query strings to be combined.
 </p>

 <p>Consider the following rule:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 RewriteRule /pages/(.+) /page.php?page=$1 [QSA]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>With the [QSA] flag, a request for <code>/pages/123?one=two</code> will be
 mapped to <code>/page.php?page=123&amp;one=two</code>. Without the [QSA]
 flag, that same request will be mapped to
 <code>/page.php?page=123</code> - that is, the existing query string
 will be discarded.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_r" id="flag_r">R|redirect</a></h3>
 <p>
 Use of the [R] flag causes a HTTP redirect to be issued to the browser.
 If a fully-qualified URL is specified (that is, including
 <code>http://servername/</code>) then a redirect will be issued to that
 location. Otherwise, the current servername will be used to generate the
 URL sent with the redirect.
 </p>

 <p>
 A status code may be specified, in the range 300-399, with a 302 status
 code being used by default if none is specified.
 </p>

 <p>
 You will almost always want to use [R] in conjunction with [L] (that is,
 use [R,L]) because on its own, the [R] flag prepends
 <code>http://thishost[:thisport]</code> to the URI, but then passes this
 on to the next rule in the ruleset, which can often result in 'Invalid
 URI in request' warnings.
 </p>


 <h3><a name="flag_s" id="flag_s">S|skip</a></h3>
 <p>The [S] flag is used to skip rules that you don't want to run. This
 can be thought of as a <code>goto</code> statement in your rewrite
 ruleset. In the following example, we only want to run the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> if the requested URI
 doesn't correspond with an actual file.</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 # Is the request for a non-existent file?<br />
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f<br />
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d<br />
 # If so, skip these two RewriteRules<br />
 RewriteRule .? - [S=2]<br />
 <br />
 RewriteRule (.*\.gif) images.php?$1<br />
 RewriteRule (.*\.html) docs.php?$1
 </code></p></div>

 <p>This technique is useful because a <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> only applies to the
 <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> immediately
 following it. Thus, if you want to make a <code>RewriteCond</code> apply
 to several <code>RewriteRule</code>s, one possible technique is to
 negate those conditions and use a [Skip] flag.</p>


 <h3><a name="flag_t" id="flag_t">T|type</a></h3>
 <p>Sets the MIME type with which the resulting response will be
 sent. This has the same effect as the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_mime.html#addtype">AddType</a></code> directive.</p>

 <p>For example, you might use the following technique to serve Perl
 source code as plain text, if requested in a particular way:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 # Serve .pl files as plain text<br />
 RewriteRule \.pl$ - [T=text/plain]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>Or, perhaps, if you have a camera that produces jpeg images without
 file extensions, you could force those images to be served with the
 correct MIME type by virtue of their file names:</p>

 <div class="example"><p><code>
 # Files with 'IMG' in the name are jpg images.<br />
 RewriteRule IMG - [T=image/jpg]
 </code></p></div>

 <p>Please note that this is a trivial example, and could be better done
 using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#filesmatch">&lt;FilesMatch&gt;</a></code>
 instead. Always consider the alternate
 solutions to a problem before resorting to rewrite, which will
 invariably be a less efficient solution than the alternatives.</p>


 </div></div>
 <div class="bottomlang">
 <p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/rewrite/rewrite_flags.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a></p>
 </div><div id="footer">
 <p class="apache">Copyright 2008 The Apache Software Foundation.<br />Licensed under the <a href="http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License, Version 2.0</a>.</p>
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	<title>Apache mod_rewrite Flags - Apache HTTP Server</title>
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	<body id="manual-page"><div id="page-header">
	<p class="menu"><a href="../mod/">Modules</a> \| <a href="../mod/directives.html">Directives</a> \| <a href="../faq/">FAQ</a> \| <a href="../glossary.html">Glossary</a> \| <a href="../sitemap.html">Sitemap</a></p>
	<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.3</p>
	<img alt="" src="../images/feather.gif" /></div>
	<div class="up"><a href="./"><img title="<-" alt="<-" src="../images/left.gif" /></a></div>
	<div id="path">
	<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> > <a href="../">Version 2.3</a> > <a href="./">Rewrite</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Apache mod_rewrite Flags</h1>
	<div class="toplang">
	<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/rewrite/rewrite_flags.html" title="English"> en </a></p>
	</div>

	<p>This document discusses the flags which are available to the
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> directive,
	providing detailed explanations and examples. This is not necessarily
	a comprehensive list of all flags available, so be sure to also
	consult the reference documentation.</p>
	</div>
	<div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
	<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#flags">The flags</a></li>
	</ul><h3>See also</h3><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html">Module documentation</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_tech.html">Technical details</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_guide.html">Rewrite Guide - useful examples</a></li><li><a href="rewrite_guide_advanced.html">Advanced Rewrite Guide -
	advanced useful examples</a></li></ul></div>
	<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
	<div class="section">
	<h2><a name="introduction" id="introduction">Introduction</a></h2>
	<p><code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code>s can have
	their behavior modified by one or more flags. Flags are included in
	square brackets at the end of the rule, and multiple flags are separated
	by commas.</p>
	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule pattern target [Flag1,Flag2,Flag3]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>The flags all have a short form, such as <code>CO</code>, as well as
	a longer form, such as <code>cookie</code>. Some flags take one or more
	arguments. Flags are not case sensitive.</p>

	</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
	<div class="section">
	<h2><a name="flags" id="flags">The flags</a></h2>

	<p>Each flag has a long and short form. While it is most common to use
	the short form, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the
	long form, so that you remember what each flag is supposed to do.</p>

	<p>Presented here are each of the available flags, along with an example
	of how you might use them.</p>

	<h3><a name="flag_c" id="flag_c">C\|chain</a></h3>
	<p>The [C] or [chain] flag indicates that the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> is chained to the next
	rule. That is, if the rule matches, then it is processed as usual and
	control moves on to the next rule. However, if it does not match, then
	the next rule, and any other rules that are chained together, will be
	skipped.</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_co" id="flag_co">CO\|cookie</a></h3>
	<p>The [CO], or [cookie] flag, allows you to set a cookie when a
	particular <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code>
	matches. The argument consists of three required fields and two optional
	fields.</p>
	<p>You must declare a name and value for the cookie to be set, and the
	domain for which you wish the cookie to be valid. You may optionally set
	the lifetime of the cookie, and the path for which it should be
	returned.</p>
	<p>By default, the lifetime of the cookie is the current browser
	session.</p>
	<p>By default, the path for which the cookie will be valid is "/" - that
	is, the entire website.</p>
	<p>Several examples are offered here:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteEngine On<br />
	RewriteRule ^/index.html - [CO=frontdoor:yes:.apache.org:1440:/]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>This rule doesn't rewrite the request (the "-" rewrite target tells
	mod_rewrite to pass the request through unchanged) but sets a cookie
	called 'frontdoor' to a value of 'yes'. The cookie is valid for any host
	in the <code>.apache.org</code> domain. It will be set to expire in 1440
	minutes (24 hours) and will be returned for all URIs.</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_e" id="flag_e">E\|env</a></h3>
	<p>With the [E], or [env] flag, you can set the value of an environment
	variable. Note that some environment variables may be set after the rule
	is run, thus unsetting what you have set. See <a href="../env.html">the
	Environment Variables document</a> for more details on how Environment
	variables work.</p>

	<p>The following example sets an evironment variable called 'image' to a
	value of '1' if the requested URI is an image file. Then, that
	environment variable is used to exclude those requests from the access
	log.</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule \.(png\|gif\|jpg) - [E=image:1]<br />
	CustomLog logs/access_log combined env=!image
	</code></p></div>

	<p>Note that this same effect can be obtained using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code>. This technique is offered as
	an example, not as a recommendation.</p>


	<h3><a name="flag_f" id="flag_f">F\|forbidden</a></h3>
	<p>Using the [F] flag causes Apache to return a 403 Forbidden status
	code to the client. While the same behavior can be accomplished using
	the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_access.html#deny">Deny</a></code> directive, this
	allows more flexibility in assigning a Forbidden status.</p>

	<p>The following rule will forbid <code>.exe</code> files from being
	downloaded from your server.</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule \.exe - [F]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>This example uses the "-" syntax for the rewrite target, which means
	that the requested URI is not modified. There's no reason to rewrite to
	another URI, if you're going to forbid the request.</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_g" id="flag_g">G\|gone</a></h3>
	<p>The [G] flag forces Apache to return a 410 Gone status with the
	response. This indicates that a resource used to be available, but is no
	longer available.</p>

	<p>As with the [F] flag, you will typically use the "-" syntax for the
	rewrite target when using the [G] flag:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule oldproduct - [G,NC]
	</code></p></div>


	<h3><a name="flag_h" id="flag_h">H\|handler</a></h3>
	<p>Forces the resulting request to be handled with the specified
	handler. For example, one might use this to force all files without a
	file extension to be parsed by the php handler:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule !\. - [H=application/x-httpd-php]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>
	The regular expression above - <code>!\.</code> - will match any request
	that does not contain the literal <code>.</code> character.
	</p>


	<h3><a name="flag_l" id="flag_l">L\|last</a></h3>
	<p>The [L] flag causes <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code> to stop processing
	the rule set. In most contexts, this means that if the rule matches, no
	further rules will be processed.</p>

	<p>If you are using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> in either
	<code>.htaccess</code> files or in
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#directory"><Directory></a></code> sections,
	it is important to have some understanding of how the rules are
	processed. The simplified form of this is that once the rules have been
	processed, the rewritten request is handed back to the URL parsing
	engine to do what it may with it. It is possible that as the rewritten
	request is handled, the <code>.htaccess</code> file or
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#directory"><Directory></a></code> section
	may be encountered again, and thus the ruleset may be run again from the
	start. Most commonly this will happen if one of the rules causes a
	redirect - either internal or external - causing the request process to
	start over.</p>

	<p>It is therefore important, if you are using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> directives in one of these
	contexts, that you take explicit steps to avoid rules looping, and not
	count solely on the [L] flag to terminate execution of a series of
	rules, as shown below.</p>

	<p>The example given here will rewrite any request to
	<code>index.php</code>, giving the original request as a query string
	argument to <code>index.php</code>, however, the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> ensures that if the request
	is already for <code>index.php</code>, the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> will be skipped.</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !index\.php<br />
	RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php?req=$1 [L]
	</code></p></div>


	<h3><a name="flag_n" id="flag_n">N\|next</a></h3>
	<p>
	The [N] flag causes the ruleset to start over again from the top. Use
	with extreme caution, as it may result in loop.
	</p>
	<p>
	The [Next] flag could be used, for example, if you wished to replace a
	certain string or letter repeatedly in a request. The example shown here
	will replace A with B everywhere in a request, and will continue doing
	so until there are no more As to be replaced.
	</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule (.)A(.) $1B$2 [N]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>You can think of this as a <code>while</code> loop: While this
	pattern still matches (i.e., while the URI still contains an
	<code>A</code>), perform this substitution (i.e., replace the
	<code>A</code> with a <code>B</code>).</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_nc" id="flag_nc">NC\|nocase</a></h3>
	<p>Use of the [NC] flag causes the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> to be matched in a
	case-insensitive manner. That is, it doesn't care whether letters appear
	as upper-case or lower-case in the matched URI.</p>

	<p>In the example below, any request for an image file will be proxied
	to your dedicated image server. The match is case-insensitive, so that
	<code>.jpg</code> and <code>.JPG</code> files are both acceptable, for
	example.</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule (.*\.(jpg\|gif\|png))$ http://images.example.com$1 [P,NC]
	</code></p></div>


	<h3><a name="flag_ne" id="flag_ne">NE\|noescape</a></h3>
	<p>By default, special characters, such as <code>&</code> and
	<code>?</code>, for example, will be converted to their hexcode
	equivalent. Using the [NE] flag prevents that from happening.
	</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule ^/anchor/(.+) /bigpage.html#$1 [NE,R]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>
	The above example will redirect <code>/anchor/xyz</code> to
	<code>/bigpage.html#xyz</code>. Omitting the [NE] will result in the #
	being converted to its hexcode equivalent, <code>%23</code>, which will
	then result in a 404 Not Found error condition.
	</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_ns" id="flag_ns">NS\|nosubreq</a></h3>
	<p>Use of the [NS] flag prevents the rule from being used on
	subrequests. For example, a page which is included using an SSI (Server
	Side Include) is a subrequest, and you may want to avoid rewrites
	happening on those subrequests.</p>

	<p>
	Images, javascript files, or css files, loaded as part of an HTML page,
	are not subrequests - the browser requests them as separate HTTP
	requests.
	</p>


	<h3><a name="flag_p" id="flag_p">P\|proxy</a></h3>
	<p>Use of the [P] flag causes the request to be handled by
	<code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code>, and handled via a proxy request. For
	example, if you wanted all image requests to be handled by a back-end
	image server, you might do something like the following:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule (.*)\.(jpg\|gif\|png) http://images.example.com$1.$2 [P]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>Use of the [P] flag implies [L] - that is, the request is immediatly
	pushed through the proxy, and any following rules will not be
	considered.</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_pt" id="flag_pt">PT\|passthrough</a></h3>

	<p>
	The target (or substitution string) in a RewriteRule is assumed to be a
	file path, by default. The use of the [PT] flag causes it to be treated
	as a URI instead. That is to say, the
	use of the [PT] flag causes the result of the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> to be passed back through
	URL mapping, so that location-based mappings, such as <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code>, for example, might have a chance to take
	effect.
	</p>

	<p>
	If, for example, you have an
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code>
	for /icons, and have a <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> pointing there, you should
	use the [PT] flag to ensure that the
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_alias.html#alias">Alias</a></code> is evaluated.
	</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	Alias /icons /usr/local/apache/icons<br />
	RewriteRule /pics/(.+)\.jpg /icons/$1.gif [PT]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>
	Omission of the [PT] flag in this case will cause the Alias to be
	ignored, resulting in a 'File not found' error being returned.
	</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_qsa" id="flag_qsa">QSA\|qsappend</a></h3>
	<p>
	When the replacement URI contains a query string, the default behavior
	of <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> is to discard
	the existing query string, and replace it with the newly generated one.
	Using the [QSA] flag causes the query strings to be combined.
	</p>

	<p>Consider the following rule:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	RewriteRule /pages/(.+) /page.php?page=$1 [QSA]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>With the [QSA] flag, a request for <code>/pages/123?one=two</code> will be
	mapped to <code>/page.php?page=123&one=two</code>. Without the [QSA]
	flag, that same request will be mapped to
	<code>/page.php?page=123</code> - that is, the existing query string
	will be discarded.
	</p>


	<h3><a name="flag_r" id="flag_r">R\|redirect</a></h3>
	<p>
	Use of the [R] flag causes a HTTP redirect to be issued to the browser.
	If a fully-qualified URL is specified (that is, including
	<code>http://servername/</code>) then a redirect will be issued to that
	location. Otherwise, the current servername will be used to generate the
	URL sent with the redirect.
	</p>

	<p>
	A status code may be specified, in the range 300-399, with a 302 status
	code being used by default if none is specified.
	</p>

	<p>
	You will almost always want to use [R] in conjunction with [L] (that is,
	use [R,L]) because on its own, the [R] flag prepends
	<code>http://thishost[:thisport]</code> to the URI, but then passes this
	on to the next rule in the ruleset, which can often result in 'Invalid
	URI in request' warnings.
	</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_s" id="flag_s">S\|skip</a></h3>
	<p>The [S] flag is used to skip rules that you don't want to run. This
	can be thought of as a <code>goto</code> statement in your rewrite
	ruleset. In the following example, we only want to run the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> if the requested URI
	doesn't correspond with an actual file.</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	# Is the request for a non-existent file?<br />
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f<br />
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d<br />
	# If so, skip these two RewriteRules<br />
	RewriteRule .? - [S=2]<br />
	<br />
	RewriteRule (.*\.gif) images.php?$1<br />
	RewriteRule (.*\.html) docs.php?$1
	</code></p></div>

	<p>This technique is useful because a <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> only applies to the
	<code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> immediately
	following it. Thus, if you want to make a <code>RewriteCond</code> apply
	to several <code>RewriteRule</code>s, one possible technique is to
	negate those conditions and use a [Skip] flag.</p>



	<h3><a name="flag_t" id="flag_t">T\|type</a></h3>
	<p>Sets the MIME type with which the resulting response will be
	sent. This has the same effect as the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_mime.html#addtype">AddType</a></code> directive.</p>

	<p>For example, you might use the following technique to serve Perl
	source code as plain text, if requested in a particular way:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	# Serve .pl files as plain text<br />
	RewriteRule \.pl$ - [T=text/plain]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>Or, perhaps, if you have a camera that produces jpeg images without
	file extensions, you could force those images to be served with the
	correct MIME type by virtue of their file names:</p>

	<div class="example"><p><code>
	# Files with 'IMG' in the name are jpg images.<br />
	RewriteRule IMG - [T=image/jpg]
	</code></p></div>

	<p>Please note that this is a trivial example, and could be better done
	using <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#filesmatch"><FilesMatch></a></code>
	instead. Always consider the alternate
	solutions to a problem before resorting to rewrite, which will
	invariably be a less efficient solution than the alternatives.</p>


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