Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Name

RewriteBase

Synopsis

RewriteBase BaseURL
directory, .htaccess

The effects of this command can be fairly easily achieved by using the rewrite rules, but it may sometimes be simpler to encapsulate the process. It explicitly sets the base URL for per-directory rewrites. If RewriteRule is used in an .htaccess file, it is passed a URL that has had the local directory stripped off so that the rules act only on the remainder. When the substitution is finished, RewriteBase supplies the necessary prefix. To quote the manual’s example in .htaccess:

Alias /xyz /abc/def"
RewriteBase   /xyz
RewriteRule   ^oldstuff\.html$  newstuff.html

In this example, a request to /xyz/oldstuff.html gets rewritten to the physical file /abc/def/newstuff.html. Internally, the following happens:

Request

/xyz/oldstuff.html

Internal processing

/xyz/oldstuff.html     -> /abc/def/oldstuff.html  (per-server Alias)
/abc/def/oldstuff.html -> /abc/def/newstuff.html  (per-dir    RewriteRule)
/abc/def/newstuff.html -> /xyz/newstuff.html      (per-dir    RewriteBase)
/xyz/newstuff.html     -> /abc/def/newstuff.html  (per-server Alias)

Result

/abc/def/newstuff.html