How to always remove WWW from a url with mod_rewrite?

Question

I\'m using the following to try and remove WWW from the url:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://example.com$1 [R=301]


        

Answer 1

Here is a solution if you don't want a hard coded domain name. Don't forget to start the rewrite engine or this won't work!

 # Start rewrite engine
 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   Options +FollowSymlinks
   RewriteEngine On
 </IfModule>

 # Rewrite "www.example.com -> example.com"
 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^ http://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
 </IfModule>

Answer 2

I would always use 307 (temporary redirect) first because if you get it wrong some browsers cache it permanently. I ended up installing Google Chrome just because I couldn't get my Firefox to forget a bad redirect even when I deleted the whole cache.

Answer 3

Here’s a more generalized solution:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Answer 4

Try:

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

And without mod_rewrite:

<VirtualHost 10.0.0.1:80>
        ServerName www.example.com
        Redirect permanent / http://example.com/
</VirtualHost>

Virtual hosts can be used by completing the steps in the following URL: Setting Up A Virtual Host in Apache.

Answer 5

As a minor tweak of Kyle's answer, I'd put a / in the RewriteRule match condition, like

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

Otherwise, you get a double slash as a result.

http://www.example.com/smth -> http://example.com//smth