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up vote 1 down vote favorite

How to do this with regular expression?

Old -> New
http://www.example.com/1.html   -> http://www.example.com/dir/1.html
http://www.example.com/2.html   -> http://www.example.com/dir/2.html
http://www.example.com/3.asp    -> http://www.example.com/dir/3.html
http://www.example.com/4.asp    -> http://www.example.com/dir/4.html
http://www.example.com/4_a.html -> http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-a.html
http://www.example.com/4_b.html -> http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-b.html

I've tried this:

Redirect 301 /1.html http://www.example.com/dir/1.html 
Redirect 301 /2.html http://www.example.com/dir/2.html 
Redirect 301 /3.asp http://www.example.com/dir/3.html 
Redirect 301 /4.asp http://www.example.com/dir/4.html 
Redirect 301 /4_a.html http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-a.html 
Redirect 301 /4_b.html http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-b.html
share|improve this question
1  
What have you tried? – John Conde♦ Nov 17 '12 at 16:44
Redirect 301 /1.html http://www.example.com/dir/1.html Redirect 301 /2.html http://www.example.com/dir/2.html Redirect 301 /3.asp http://www.example.com/dir/3.html Redirect 301 /4.asp http://www.example.com/dir/4.html Redirect 301 /4_a.html http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-a.html Redirect 301 /4_b.html http://www.example.com/dir/sub/4-b.html – Eddie ZA Nov 17 '12 at 17:06

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

this is what i came up with

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^((1|2)\.html|(3|4)\.asp)$ /dir/$1.html [R=301,L]
  RewriteRule ^(4_([a-b]))\.html$ /dir/sub/$1.html [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
share|improve this answer
Do you not need a more general solution? Your solution would seem to work just for the 6 redirects you mention in your question. If this is the case then you could argue that your original Redirects are the preferred solution. – w3d Nov 18 '12 at 12:49
Actually, your solution does not appear to work - have you tried it?! $1 matches the first parenthesised sub pattern, which will be 1.html or 2.html or 3.asp or 4.asp, you then append .html which becomes /dir/1.html.html. I'll add an answer... – w3d Nov 18 '12 at 16:45
up vote -1 down vote 
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$ 
RewriteRule ^1\.html$ "http\:\/\/example\.com\/dir\/1\.html" [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$
RewriteRule ^1_a\.html$ "http\:\/\/example\.com\/dir\/sub\/1\-a\.html" [R=301,L]

RewriteOptions inherit

That should work

share|improve this answer
is it possible to use like RewriteRule ^((1|2)\.html|(3|4)\.asp)$ dir/$1.html [R=301, L] ? – Eddie ZA Nov 17 '12 at 17:32
I wouldn't be able to tell you. Just copy that whole code and change what you need for each redirect. That's how i have in my websites. I also added the code for the one with a - on it. It's a bit trickier. That should work with no problems, just make your changes. – guisasso Nov 17 '12 at 19:42
1  
@guisasso: The reason for using mod_rewrite and a regex, as opposed to a mod_alias redirect, is presumably to simplify the solution. Your answer does the complete opposite. – w3d Nov 18 '12 at 12:38
1  
Perhaps i know a lot less about the subject than i thought i did. Just trying to help. – guisasso Nov 19 '12 at 15:16
1  
@guisasso: No worries, we are all learning :). Just a few points about the code you have posted that rang some bells... 1. No need to check against HTTP_HOST unless we are dealing with multiple domains, which doesn't seem to be the case here. 2. No need to escape (forward) slashes, hyphens and colons in the RewriteRule substitution as they have no special meaning in the context they are used. 3. No need to surround the RewriteRule substitution in double quotes. – w3d Nov 20 '12 at 12:52
show 1 more comment
up vote -1 down vote

This is a rather more general solution, so in that respect it might not be what you are after, but it should redirect the URLs in your question.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(\d)\.(html|asp)$ /dir/$1.html [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^(\d)_([a-z])\.html$ /dir/sub/$1-$2.html [R=301,L]

The first RewriteRule will match any single digit URL eg. "1.html" or "7.asp" and redirect to "/dir/1.html" or "/dir/7.html" respectively. The $1 matches the first parenthesised sub pattern in the pattern that is matched.

The second RewriteRule matches a URL that contains a single digit followed by an underscore and then a single lowercase letter. The underscore is replaced with a hyphen in the redirect. eg. "6_g.html" is redirected to "/dir/sub/6-g.html".

share|improve this answer
Why the neg vote? Is there anything wrong with the code/answer posted? How can it be improved? Having tested this code myself, it does appear to solve the OPs problem in a more compact, efficient manner than stated in the question, using a regex. – w3d Nov 24 '12 at 10:42

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