Title: .htaccess decipher request
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# .htaccess decipher request

 *  [Dave333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave333/)
 * (@dave333)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-decipher-request/)
 * I am in the process of rebuilding a website. I’ve had to reverse engineer a lot
   of it and am now about to replace the old site. I had a look at the .htaccess
   file on the server and it has code in it that I don’t understand. I would like
   some help understanding what each line does if anyone is familiar with the code
   used in .htaccess files.
 * Here is the code:
 *     ```
       Options +FollowSymlinks
       <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
       RewriteEngine on
       RewriteBase /
   
       RewriteRule ^(.+\.!)/$ $1 [R=301,L]
       RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)(/?)$ /index.php?p=$1 [L]
       RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)(/?)$ /index.php?p=$1&v=$2 [L]
   
       </IfModule>
       ```
   
 * Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Dave333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave333/)
 * (@dave333)
 * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-decipher-request/#post-2419550)
 * Actually, I was looking at the wrong file. Here is the code that needs deciphering:
 *     ```
       ErrorDocument 404 http://website.com/404
   
       Options +FollowSymlinks
       <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
       RewriteEngine on
       RewriteBase /
   
       ## REMOVE TRAILING SLASH
       RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ $1 [R=301,L]
   
       ## REDIRECT REQUESTS FOR WELCOME PAGE TO SITE ROOT (avoids pagerank duplication)
       RewriteRule ^welcome$ / [R=301] [L]
       RewriteRule ^administration$ /administration/index.php  [L]
       RewriteRule ^alabama$ /index.php?page=contact&regionID=1 [L]
       RewriteRule ^contact/alabama$ /index.php?page=contact&regionID=1 [L]
       RewriteRule ^washington$ /index.php?page=contact&regionID=1 [L]
       RewriteRule ^contact/washington$ /index.php?page=contact&regionID=1 [L]
   
       ## PASS FIRST URI SEGMENT TO $p VARIABLE
       RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)(/?)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
   
       ## PASS FIRST URI SEGMENT TO $p VARIABLE and SECOND URI SEGMENT TO $v VARIABLE
       RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)(/?)$ /index.php?page=$1&$2=$3	 [L]
       RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)(/?)$ /index.php?page=$1&$2=$3&$4=$5	 [L]
   
       </IfModule>
       ```
   
 * The commenting helps understand the intended function of the code but is there
   a glossary or something that someone can refer me to that explains all the details,
   such as what ^, (/?), [L], etc. mean?
 * (There are more states than just Alabama and Washington but I wanted to keep 
   it simple so stripped the rest out).
 * Thanks

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘.htaccess decipher request’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [htaccess](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/htaccess/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [Dave333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave333/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-decipher-request/#post-2419550)
 * Status: not resolved

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