Apache RewriteRule to simulate directory

Question

Hi StackOverflow !

is there a way to tell Apache to simulate a directory in the URL ?

Here is what I'm trying to do... I currently have an URL like http://photo.mydomain.com/pics/17/120417/1.jpg and I would like to be able to reach the same content with an URL like http ://photo.mydomain.com/pics/51/17/120417/1.jpg .

Is that possible ? If yes, a little of bit would be much appreciated :-)

Thanks !

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^pics/\d{2}/(.+)$ pics/$1

"\d{2}" would be "51" and "(.+)" means one or more symbols

Answer 2

Try this rule:

RewriteRule ^pics/\d{2}/([^/]+/[^/]+/[^/]+)$ pics/$1

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Edit     Since you’re using this rule in the <VirtualHost> section and not in a .htaccess file, you need to use the full path with path prefix in the pattern:

RewriteRule ^/pics/\d{2}/([^/]+/[^/]+/[^/]+)$ pics/$1

Only in .htaccess files you need to remove them:

When using the rewrite engine in .htaccess files the per-directory prefix (which always is the same for a specific directory) is automatically removed for the pattern matching and automatically added after the substitution has been done.