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The Apache HTTP Server's mod_alias provides the Redirect directive which is great for simple redirects, like the following:

# Redirect login to https
Redirect permanent /login https://www.example.org/login

While many admins use mod_rewrite for redirects, the Apache documentation at When not to use mod_rewrite suggest that in general, mod_alias is preferred over mod_rewrite. I'd like to use mod_alias more.

Can I use Redirect with Apache variables such as ServerName? For example, to enforce that certain content is available over HTTPS only, I would want to do something like this:

Redirect permanent /login https://%{SERVER_NAME}/login
Redirect permanent /special-project-1 https://%{SERVER_NAME}/special-project-1
Redirect permanent /special-project-2 https://%{SERVER_NAME}/special-project-2

Neither of these work, and the literal string %{SERVER_NAME} is printed in the response:

host% curl http://www.example.org/login
...
302 Found
The document has moved <a href="https://%{SERVER_NAME}/login">here</a>.

Are Apache variables allowed with mod_alias directives? Are the variables available using a different syntax?

Stefan Lasiewski
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2 Answers2

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A bit late, but ran across this thread looking w/ just this problem and found a solution.

With Apache 2.4 you can't do:

Redirect permanent /login https://%{SERVER_NAME}/login

But you can do:

<Location /login>
  Redirect permanent https://%{HTTP_HOST}/login
</Location>
WRSomsky
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I believe a similar question is answered here: https://serverfault.com/a/415796/337307

@shanemadden wrote:

You cannot. Redirect is able to handle simple redirections, where you're sending the client to a single, specific name, but does not have the ability to do complex substitutions (setting aside the fact that %{HTTP_HOST} is mod_rewrite-specific).

Just stick with mod_rewrite. mod_alias isn't capable of doing what you need.

Community
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sippybear
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  • That's similar, but is more about `mod_alias` verses `mod_rewrite`, and appears out of date. `%{HTTP_HOST}` is a `mod_rewrite` thing. Apache 2.2 didn't support many of these Apache variables back then. – Stefan Lasiewski Mar 03 '16 at 22:48
  • Ah, perhaps this information from Apache's documentation is more helpful: `First, all Redirects are processed before Aliases are processed, and therefore a request that matches a Redirect or RedirectMatch will never have Aliases applied. Second, the Aliases and Redirects are processed in the order they appear in the configuration files, with the first match taking precedence.` I think this is saying you can't use Apache variables because the statement is evaluated in the wrong order. Please let me know if I'm misreading. – sippybear Mar 04 '16 at 07:43
  • The referenced document is available here:https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_alias.html – sippybear Mar 04 '16 at 07:48
  • But Apache variables are a part of the core Apache code, and are not part of `mod_rewrite`. `mod_rewrite` has it's own set of parameters, like `%{HTTP_HOST}`, which I believe are different. In my case, I'm not using `mod_rewrite` at all, just `mod_alias` and the Apache core code. – Stefan Lasiewski Mar 04 '16 at 17:10