mod_rewrite redirect to URL with propietary protocol

Question

I'm using Apache 2.2 with mod_rewrite.

Is there a way to force mod_rewrite to rewrite the entire URL, including protocol? I know it will automatically rewrite the whole URL if the redirect contains http:// at the beginning but I'm trying to redirect to a URL that uses a proprietary protocol: fcp://

When I add it in as the redirect it just redirects to the URL of my server with the rewrite appended like so:

http://www.example.com/fcp://@mailstaff....

Can I configure the module to treat fcp:// as a full URL so I don't run in to this?

UPDATE: Here is the code I am using:

RewriteCond ${externals:$2|Unknown} !Unknown
RewriteRule ^(internal|external)/(.*)/? ${externals:$2} [R=301,NE,L,NS]

Inside the externals RewriteMap, I have a line like this:

firstclass-email     fcp://@mailstaff.example.com/

When I go to trigger the RewriteRule by going to:

http://example.com/internal/firstclass-email

It will incorrectly redirect me to here:

http://example.com/fcp://@mailstaff.example.com/

If I change the protocol part from fcp:// to http://, Apache will realize it's an absolute URL and work correctly. I want Apache to recognize fcp:// should also be absolute.

Answer 1

Have you tried this?

RewriteRule ^/yourUrl$ fcp://otherUrl [RL]

Answer 2

Apache can only handle the most common URL schemes like http, https, ftp, mailto, etc. Custom URL schemes are not recognized as such but handled as a URL path.

See the is_absolute_uri function in the source code of mod_rewrite.c for details on what schemes are supported.