how to remove .php extension using htaccess on godaddy linux hosting

Question

How to remove .php extension using .htaccess file. I have tried many examples without success. An Internal server error is regularly showing. I am using Godaddy Linux Hosting.

This code is the latest which I am using.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> 
     Options All -Indexes 
     Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews 
     RewriteEngine On 
     RewriteBase /

     # Unless directory, remove trailing slash 
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
     RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/$ http://a.sprybirds.com/$1 [R=301,L] 

     # Redirect external .php requests to extensionless url 
     RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^(.+)\.php([#?][^\ ]*)?\ HTTP/ 
     RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://a.sprybirds.com/$1 [R=301,L] 

     # Resolve .php file for extensionless php urls 
     RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)$ $1.php [L]
</IfModule>

Site is parked on a sub-domain http://subdomain.example.com and folder sequence is just like web-root/sub_folder/site_folder/.

Answer 1

The question is missing example URLs, which is really essential for diagnosing such problems, however...

# Resolve .php file for extensionless php urls 
RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)$ $1.php [L]

This only matches URLs with single path segments, ie. URLs that are effectively in the document root, eg. /foo. It won't match URLs with multiple path segments, ie. URLs that are effectively in subdirectories eg. /foo/bar - which would explain why you are getting 404s for "php files inside the subfolder".

You need to remove the slash in the RewriteRule pattern, in order to match any URL depth:

RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.php [L]

By including a slash in the negated character class you are only matching URLs that don't contain a slash. ie. URLs in the document root only.

(There is no need to backslash escape a literal dot when used inside a character class.)

Answer 2

Do you have a .htaccess file in ./public_html/? If so, what's inside it? The way .htaccess works is by giving the directory closest to the actual root top priority.

As an example:

/home/username/public_html/.htaccess

is given a higher priority (i.e. more control) than

/home/username/public_html/sub_directory/.htaccess

If you're primary .htaccess file is setting rules one way and the sub-directory is setting them another, it's possible you'll run in to issues (i.e. an error).

If you're set in your actual web root, the following lines could be causing some issues as cPanel allows server administrators to set these options by default from within WHM. If these are already set (specifically -Indexes), you'll likely see an error.

Options All -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews

Note: The -Indexes directive is normally set by default before clients are even placed on a server (or it should be, unless there's a specific reason not to), FYI. This is more of a security recommendation to prevent directory browsing as not every client is going to know that unless there's an index.[ext] file in every directory, their directories are wide-open for browsing by whoever wants to take a look.

---

If removing those resolves the error, then you've found the problem :). If removing these lines does not work, trial & error is where we need to start.

Back to the top, look in directories that reside above the directory you're having issues with. Check the .htaccess files and make sure you have "display or show hidden files" checked or set to "yes" in the S/FTP program that you're using as they're not always visible by default.

From here, the best course of action would be to backup each .htaccess file and re-add them one-by-one until you run in to another error. This way you can mark down which file upload brought on the error and we can take a look at that one.

---

Update #01

Since the culprit for the error most likely was indeed the -Indexes, you can add the following back to the .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews

If that does not resolve the 404, try this:

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Adds Trailing Slash to the URI as long as it's not for a
# file.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|/|#(.*))$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://subdomain.example.com/$1/ [R=301,L]

# Checks to make sure the request is a directory.
# Checks to see if the request matches a file with a .php ext.
# If all is well, push the request through to the matching file.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)/$ http://subdomain.example.com/$1.php