Pretty Permalinks and Subdomains

I only use the one domain. I’m wondering if it’s possible to have redirects, so that if someone trying to visit mydomain.com/blah or mydomain.com/hello, they’ll get redirected to the appropriate subdomain blog, instead…

So mydomain.com/blah goes to blog.mydomain.com/blah ?

That’s slightly problematic. The normal approach is this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://$1.domain.com [L,R=301]

But that would break WP, since it needs to use domain.com/wp-admin….

You could edit the 404 page to redirect, though. Just grab the URL people are using and trim that?

To be clear, my domain is seventh-star.net (the main network blog). I have several subsites that are also WordPress sites, including atw.seventh-star.net. Formerly, I directed people to that blog with the URL seventh-star.net/atw which now brings up a 404 WordPress page.

How would I go about editing the 404 page to redirect where it wouldn’t apply to every mistyped URL or something?

And what do you mean by “grab the URL people are using and trim that”? I know what possible URLs might still be in use vs. what WordPress is using, but trim them how? With/for what?

Thank you for your help and clarification!

I know what possible URLs might still be in use vs. what WordPress is using

If you only have a set list of URLs to redirect, that’s easier, if time consuming.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com
RewriteRule ^blah$ https://blah.domain.com [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com
RewriteRule ^hello$ https://hello.domain.com [L,R=301]

And yes, you have to separate them like that.

So the RewriteRule only mentions the actual, existing WordPress install, not the one people might try and go to?

The only URL people might try to use (incorrectly) is this one: seventh-star.net/atw instead of atw.seventh-star.net

That’s what I’m trying to “plan” for.

The RewriteCond says ‘If someone comes to THIS domain…’

And the ReWrite Rule says ‘… and if they go to this page…’

So:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh-star\.net
RewriteRule ^atw$ https://atw.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

(You can probably do this too:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh-star\.net
RewriteRule ^(atw|blah|foobar)$ https://$1.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

Which will take seventh-star.net/atw, /blah AND /foobar and redirect them correctly, but test is first.)

I tried both methods, but neither seem to work; I get the same 404 message.

I tried seeing if having the dash in my domain name escaped would make a difference, but it doesn’t seem to. This is what I mean:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh\-star\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh\-star\.net$

I also tried putting individual RewriteCond and RewriteRules like so, but it didn’t seem to help:

# BEGIN WordPress
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

#FOR OLD URLS THAT ARE NOW WORDPRESS SITES
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh\-star\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh\-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^atw$ https://atw.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh\-star\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh\-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^indigo$ https://indigo.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh\-star\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh\-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^chixflix$ https://chixflix.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]
# END WordPress

No, you can’t do that.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^chixflix$ https://chixflix.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^chixflix$ https://chixflix.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

You can only have ONE condition and rule set.

So it’s one condition, one rule, not two conditions that either/or must be matched, or condition A *and* condition B, then this rule?

I think most people won’t use the www, but that’s just my best guess.

It’s one condition, one rule.

The only time you can use either or is if you use () variables.

Like I have this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(code|tech)\.ipstenu\.org
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://halfelf.org/$1 [L,R=301]

I explained it a little deeper here: https://halfelf.org/2012/htaccess-anarchy/

Anyway. You could probably get away with this:

# permanently redirect from www domain to non-www domain
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.seventh-star\.net$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://seventh-star.net/$1 [R=301,L]

# Redirect chixflix, dudeprude, jimbo
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^seventh-star\.net$
RewriteRule ^(chixflix|dudeprude|jimbo)$ https://$1.seventh-star.net/ [L,R=301]

That will let you have fewer rules and improve your SEO by forcing one version of www vs non www ??