Title: A Basic Permalinks Question
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# A Basic Permalinks Question

 *  [harpshot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/harpshot/)
 * (@harpshot)
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/)
 * It seems like most of the permalinks problems come from incorrect mod_rewrite
   rules in the htaccess file. But, the permalinks options page says that if you
   start your permalink structure with /index.php/ then you can ignore mod_rewrite.
   I tried this and didn’t touch htaccess and the permalinks seem to work fine. 
   So, I’m wondering why everybody doesn’t just do this. What am I missing? Is this
   just dumb luck that could fail at any moment? Or does it limit something I haven’t
   thought of?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [moisie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moisie/)
 * (@moisie)
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-68829)
 * One reason would be that using /index.php/just isn’t as nice looking as the .
   htaccess route. In addition .htaccess is useful for people trying to mirror url
   structures from other software such as movable type.
 *  Thread Starter [harpshot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/harpshot/)
 * (@harpshot)
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-68893)
 * Makes it one word longer, but it doesn’t seem less nice looking to me. If people
   are accustomed to typing /domain/archives/2004/03/10/ I suppose the necessity
   of putting index.php/ in the string might confuse them. But how many people actually
   type URI’s? My motivation to use permalink structure is the theory it’s good 
   SEO. I was concerned whether the WP script that renders the “nice” URI after 
   index.php (or apparently any other filename) is unreliable compared to mod_rewrite.
   The permalink options page only says WP will “attempt” to pass the arguments.
   Looks to me like it works as well as mod_rewrite. Any reason to think it doesn’t?
   Or any situations where it wouldn’t?
 *  Thread Starter [harpshot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/harpshot/)
 * (@harpshot)
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-68894)
 * Ah, I see at [http://wordpress.org/support/3/6778](http://wordpress.org/support/3/6778)
   that it zonks the RSS links in WP 1.2. Fixed in beta, though.
 *  1539
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-69200)
 * > _the permalinks options page says that if you start your permalink structure
   > with /index.php/ then you can ignore mod\_rewrite. I tried this and didn’t 
   > touch htaccess and the permalinks seem to work fine._
 * I have never been able to use the pseudo-permalinks as described above. Even 
   with the current version of CVS (1.3-alpha) it does not work. It says “updated
   successfully” when I copy and paste the example line, but none of the links work(
   they return 404 errors). Any ideas why this is happening?
 *  Thread Starter [harpshot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/harpshot/)
 * (@harpshot)
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-69311)
 * The first time I did it, my text editor automatically appended .txt without telling
   me, and I didn’t notice that I had .htaccess.txt instead of .htaccess. That resulted
   in 404’s. When I renamed it to just .htaccess, it worked fine. Also, .htaccess
   has to be in the blog root directory (or above, IIRC, but definitely not below).
   After pasting, I had to trim some spaces off the end of the text (but after the
   last line carriage return) in the .htaccess file, don’t know if that matters,
   though. Be sure you have the leading “dot” in the filename: .htaccess. Beyond
   all that, there could be a problem with your apache configuration. I can’t help
   there.
 *  1539
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-69325)
 * You’re missing the point harpshot. I want to use the permalink structure that
   does **not** require the .htaccess, simply because my web host does not support
   mod_rewrite (though I asked them once before and they have plans to implement
   it).
 *  Anonymous
 * [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-69338)
 * For the non-htaccess method to work, your server must have PHP set to append 
   path info– and this is not always the case. If it doesn’t, that method fails.
   Not sure if this can be set by the local user or not…

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘A Basic Permalinks Question’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 7 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: Anonymous
 * Last activity: [21 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-basic-permalinks-question/#post-69338)
 * Status: not resolved

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