How can I implement a global RewriteCond / RewriteRule in Apache that applies to all virtual hosts?

Question

The title pretty much says it all. :-) I have lots of virtual hosts and I want to put a single rewriting block at the top of the httpd.conf file that rewrites URLs no matter which virtual host the request might be directed to. How the heck do I do this?

I found this but my question is the same: how can I do this without resorting to .htaccess files and performing some other action for each virtual host?

OMGTIA!

Answer 1

I've never tested it, so it might not work, but I would try adding an include directive in all of the virtual host blocks to a single file. You would have to change each virtual host configuration block once, but after that, you should have a central place from which to make changes. YMMV.

Answer 2

Looks like the simplest possible solution is to add

RewriteOptions inherit

to each VirtualHost directive. This is at least a lot simpler than messing with .htaccess files. Apache is pretty clear on the fact that

by default, rewrite configurations are not inherited. This means that you need to have a RewriteEngine on directive for each virtual host in which you wish to use it. (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod%5Frewrite.html)

and apparently the way to change the default is via RewriteOptions in the child (vhost or director), so you have to do something in each child.

Answer 3

If you're only trying to rewrite something in the domain part of the name, e.g. to fix a common misspelling, you don't even need the 'inherit' option. I setup a no-name virtual host to catch all invalid host names and respell them correctly before redirecting them.

Since this uses redirects, the appropriate virtual host will be found after the rewrites have been applied.

Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
# If it begins with only domain.com, prepend www and send to www.domain.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.domain.com$1 [L,R=301]

# Correct misspelling in the domain name, applies to any VirtualHost in the domain
# Requires a subdomain, i.e. (serviceXXX.)domain.com, or the prepended www. from above
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^.]+\.)dommmmmain\.com\.?(:[0-9]*)?$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) %{HTTP_HOST}$1 [C]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+\.)?domain.com(.*) http://$1domain.com$2 [L,R=301]

# No-name virtual host to catch all invalid hostnames and mod_rewrite and redirect them
<VirtualHost *>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteOptions inherit
</VirtualHost>