How do I make Linux server urls case insensitive?

When the user types into the address bar: www.mySite.com the user will get an error because linux server urls are case sensitive and the url is www.mysite.com. How would I make it so the urls are case insensitive. I've been trying a PHP script but it doesn't seem to be working (It just takes me to the index directory of the folder and gives a 403 forbiden error.) Is there any code I can place on my site that will make the urls case insensitive?

Thanks.

 

In a .htaccess file put

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.yourdomain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Code (markup):

I have to say I've never heard of this occurring before. Most browsers will send the lowercase version of the domain name to the server regardless. Are you sure you don't mean that your file names are case sensitive?

 

wha... ? This makes absolutely no sense.

 

Have the same experience, file names are the "problem", not the domain. Any solution to this via htaccess?

 

You could rewrite any files that don't exist to a php script, that then checks for the same file in lowercase. There's nothing that you could do directly with just htaccess however

 

Yes, I meant the filename. But how would I get the filename to my PHP script? I created a PHP script that gets the referer of the page, strtolower() it, and then puts the user through via header() to the lowercased page, but it seems to me that the browser never gets to my script. It gives a 403 forbiden error and the url looks like it is trying to get the file folders like www.mysite.com/script/ How would I get the browser to go to the script if there is an error in the filenames case? I tried using 404 error page but it isn't working.

 

Thanks for your information, tried to give you some rep but the new DP design is still suffering configuration issues.

 

Hit the little black star icon in the bottom left corner of the post.

 

Keep in mind that __NAMES ARE CASE SENSITIVE. IT IS NOT A FAULT OR PROBLEM OF THE SERVER__
Ask your web host to install the Apache module "mod_speling" (speling, not spelling)
It will redirect incorrect case to the right lowercase one and correct typos (in a SEO friendly way)

 

I contacted my hosting provider and they stated that my hosting account does not allow the Apache module "mod_speling". Any ideas for a work around?

Thanks.

 

How would I do this?

Get the browser to read http://www.mysite.com/FiLe.php
as....
http://www.mysite.com/file.php

 

I was thinking about using a php code that will strtolower the filename and then use header to take the user to the correct page but I can't figure out how to get my PHP file to run if there is an error in the filename. Does anyone know how I could do this?

 

http://www.chrisabernethy.com/force-lower-case-urls-with-mod_rewrite/

 

I checked out that page you posted and I found this.

.htaccess

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteMap  lc int:tolower 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} [A-Z] 
RewriteRule (.*) ${lc:$1} [R=301,L]

Code (markup):

I placed this .htaccess file in the same folder that is using the rewrite and turned off word-wrap.
It is still not working. I am using Godaddy Linux hosting. Could you please tell me why this isn't working? It looks like what I am looking for.

Thank you.

 

OK well since nobody has managed to find a solution to this yet, I thought I'd share with you the method I originally suggested that works. There are two (three possibly) files you will need for this
1 - The .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule .* badRequests.php [L]

Code (markup):

2 - badRequests.php

<?php
// get the lowercase version of the URI
$lower = strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);

// If the URI isn't the same as the lowercase version, redirect to the lowercase version
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] !== $lower) {
    header('Location: '.$lower);
    die();
}else{
    //Otherwise give a 404 error
    header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    die();
    
    //You could remove the die() line above of course to allow this to execute
    //This will send the user to the errordocument.php file, where you can show
    //your custom error document file if you wish
    header('Location: /errorDocument.php');
    die();
}

PHP:

3 - an optional errorDocument.php file containing your error message

 

Now the webpage won't even load if I type the url in uppercase. I don't know what's wrong.

Here is some information which might help you help me:

My .htaccess file is saved with the encoding as 'ANSI' if this matters?
I copied your code exactly into the correct file names.
My .htaccess file and badRequest.php file are in the same directory which is inside the one that I am trying to fix.

If you need anymore information please tell me.

Thank you.

 

Imozeb, the code you posted with a RewriteMap directive in it doesn't work because that particular directive isn't allowed in an htaccess file on any Apache server. Each directive has what's called a "context" in which it is available, if when looking at an Apache manual page you don't see .htaccess listed for that directives context, you can't use it in htaccess.

What also sucks about that in this case, is you can't explicitly use the internal tolower function as a map in RewriteRule like you might think. So something like this, isn't going to work.

# RewriteRule [A-Z] http://%{HTTP_HOST}${tolower:%{REQUEST_URI}} [R=301,L]

Code (markup):

I don't have anything hosted with Godaddy anymore so I can't test this myself, but it works here at home.

RewriteRule ![A-Z] - [S=26]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(A)(.*)$ $1a$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(C)(.*)$ $1c$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(D)(.*)$ $1d$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(E)(.*)$ $1e$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(F)(.*)$ $1f$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(G)(.*)$ $1g$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(H)(.*)$ $1h$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(I)(.*)$ $1i$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(J)(.*)$ $1j$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(K)(.*)$ $1k$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(L)(.*)$ $1l$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(M)(.*)$ $1m$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(N)(.*)$ $1n$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(O)(.*)$ $1o$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(P)(.*)$ $1p$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Q)(.*)$ $1q$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(R)(.*)$ $1r$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(S)(.*)$ $1s$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(T)(.*)$ $1t$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(U)(.*)$ $1u$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(V)(.*)$ $1v$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(W)(.*)$ $1w$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(X)(.*)$ $1x$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Y)(.*)$ $1y$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Z)(.*)$ $1z$3 [N,R=301]

Code (markup):

 

I put your code in a .htaccess file in the directory it is supposed to modify. Is this correct and should I have an index page for this directory because it seems like when I type in the url it deletes the filename and just puts everything up to the slash /.

It still isn't working. Would a link to my site help or is there any more information I could give?

 

I have my test setup in a directory named "/test/", so the path of this htaccess file is "/test/.htaccess".

This is the entire contents of the htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /test/

RewriteRule ![A-Z] - [S=26]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(A)(.*)$ $1a$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(C)(.*)$ $1c$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(D)(.*)$ $1d$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(E)(.*)$ $1e$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(F)(.*)$ $1f$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(G)(.*)$ $1g$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(H)(.*)$ $1h$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(I)(.*)$ $1i$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(J)(.*)$ $1j$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(K)(.*)$ $1k$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(L)(.*)$ $1l$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(M)(.*)$ $1m$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(N)(.*)$ $1n$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(O)(.*)$ $1o$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(P)(.*)$ $1p$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Q)(.*)$ $1q$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(R)(.*)$ $1r$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(S)(.*)$ $1s$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(T)(.*)$ $1t$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(U)(.*)$ $1u$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(V)(.*)$ $1v$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(W)(.*)$ $1w$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(X)(.*)$ $1x$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Y)(.*)$ $1y$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Z)(.*)$ $1z$3 [N,R=301]

Code (markup):

 

It worked!!! Thanks! Just two quick questions 1. How would I create a 404 redirect if the page doesnt exist and 2. Where is the best place to learn .htaccess?

Thanks again.