Rewriting with lighttpd - how to remove file extensions

Question

I would like to use lighttpd's mod_rewrite to allow requests without a specific file extension. For instance, I would like the following mappings to automatically work:

• Requesting for "/index" would serve "/index.php".
• "/dir/file" => "/dir/file.php"
• "/dir/file?args" => /dir/file.php?args"

Can this be easily done with a single rewrite rule for a given extension (e.g. ".php")?

Answer 1

yes

^(.*).php $1 [L,R,NC,QSA]

that would be for .htaccess in a directory

^/(.*).php http://same.site/$1 [L,R,NC,QSA]

where your domain is 'same.site' because it needs to redirect for the URL to change (as opposed to proxy)

Answer 2

Without having tested it, but you can give it a shot:

url.rewrite-once = ( 
  "^([^?]*)(\?.*)?$" => "$1.php$2",
)

Basically it means

• take everything but a question mark
• and, if exists, take the question mark and everything following

and you rewrite it to the first part, include the .php and add the last part again.

Again: I haven't tested it yet.

Answer 3

cassie's answer above is just about right. i would suggest dropping the trailing comma and using url-rewrite-if-not-file (available since 1.4.x lighttpd). this lets you serve other files that exist in the same directory without them getting rewritten.

url.rewrite-if-not-file = ( "^([^?]*)(\?.*)?$" => "$1.php$2" )