Apache Cookbook, 2nd Edition

5.21. Rewriting a Hostname to a Directory

Problem

You want requests for http://bogus.example.com/ to be turned into requests for http://example.com/bogus/.

Solution

RewriteCond "%{HTTP_HOST}" "^([^.]+)\.example\.com" [NC]
RewriteRule "(.*)" "http://example.com/%1$1" [R]"

To do this transparently, without a redirect:

RewriteCond "%{HTTP_HOST}" "^([^.]+)\.example\.com$" [NC]
RewriteRule "(.*)" "/%1$1" [PT]

Discussion

This technique is occasionally needed when wildcard hostnames are being supported. It gives the illusion that URLs are pointing to separate hosts rather than subdirectories on only one system. Of course, using the redirection ([R]) flag will void the illusion because the replacement URL will be visible to the end user. If you want it to be completely transparent to the user, you can use the second option to get the equivalent result with a rewrite internal to the server that the client never sees.

See Also

• http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html