How do you redirect URLs with a query string to another host?

.htaccess redirect querystring

48,127

Solution 1

This will redirect ALL requests from myhost.com to alt.myhost.com

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^alt\.myhost\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
RewriteRule ^/?(.*) http://alt.myhost.com/$1 [L,R,NE]

Code taken from official mod_rewrite manual

If for whatever reason the query string is not get preserved, replace the last line by

RewriteRule ^/?(.*) http://alt.myhost.com/$1 [L,R,NE,QSA]

UPDATE: This will redirect your specific URL to another domain:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =myhost.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(p=1&preview=true)
RewriteRule ^$ http://alt.myhost.com/?%1 [R=301,L]

Solution 2

Because of the query string "p=([0-9]+)&preview=true" I guess your need for a redirect is due to having wordpress admin on a subdomain and the website on your main domain.

Because of that you can't preview drafts.

I came up with a broader solution that also works with custom post types and plugins that add parameters:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =myhost.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (preview=true)
RewriteRule ^$ http://alt.myhost.com/?%{QUERY_STRING} [R=301,L]

In plain english when "preview=true" is found in a query, the redirection happen to the alt subdomain and the full query is kept.

48,127

qodeninja

I write qode mostly for myself... out of curiosity for solving problems, understanding how things work or making (sometimes unnecessarily) complex systems to only simplify them later (once I discover alternative strategies). For whatever reason, I like torturing myself with Regular Expressions, SED, Bash and JavaScript (Node), but have found a growing (painful) love with Python. Having said that, I enjoy scripting languages a lot more than compiled languages, and I've coded in almost all of the major modern ones except Ruby. I'm a secret Turing Machine/Computer Grammars/Regular Expressions nerd, and have written my own mini compilers and toy languages. I'm constantly writing command dispatchers that I later write scripting languages for; it's an addiction. There's plenty room for me to grow and learn still; and I appreciate the wisdom of grey beards and lady wizards even if I don't always follow their sage advice. FOSS is hella cool; cool projects are cool. Find me online if you have ideas. I'm a really bad programmer but I'll write a line or two for the betterization of the peoples. Edit: I recently discoved that VI is really just SED with wings. Still not using VI. Nano or bust.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

qodeninja almost 2 years
This htaccess snippet is supposed to redirect

myhost.com/?p=1&preview=true

to

alt.myhost.com/?p=1&preview=true
```
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^myhost.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^/\?p=([0-9]+)&preview=true$ http://alt.myhost.com/?p=$1&preview=true [NC,R=301,L]
```
but for some reason I can't escape the / and ? part of the URL. Not sure why this isnt working...

I've tried escaping ?
```
\\? \? [?]
```
and I've tried escaping the /
```
\\/ \/ [/]
```
none of these seem to work either...

help!
- LazyOne about 13 years
  
  RewriteRule does not work with query strings (everything after ?) only with url path (which you basically do not have in your example). Are you trying to redirect ALL URLs from one domain to another or just this one?
- qodeninja about 13 years
  
  Just the one =/
qodeninja about 13 years

Well I dont want all requests, I only need that specific URL redirected to another domain and not any others.
LazyOne about 13 years

@codeninja I have updated my answer. Redirect will work for that URL only.
paranzana over 7 years

Hi, this is brilliant. Would this work for postname permalinks too?
paranzana over 7 years

@LazyOne will this work with postname permalinks too? Thank you
Suleman over 4 years

Solution is great but it preview value is "truee" or "truenotsotrue", this thing still works when it shouldn't be. In other words, it doesn't match EXACT query string value