How to name file and directory the same with .htaccess rewrite rules?

Question

I am trying to work on my \"pretty-urls\" and I\'ll be the first to admit I really don\'t know what I\'m doing. I\'m trying to wrap my head around it though. So what I am trying

Answer 1

This is because of mod-dir Apache directory module that runs before mod-rewrite . When you request an existent directory without a traling slash the mod-dir issues a permanent 301 Redirect from /dir to /dir/ and that is why you are unable to rewrite the uri.

To fix this, you need to tell mod-dir not to perform the redirection when a directory without a traling slash is requested. You can use DirectorySlash directive in your htaccess to change this behaviour.

Add the following line to your htaccess :

DirectorySlash off

Reference : https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_dir.html

Answer 2

Have it this way:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^dire1/file/([0-9]+) dir1/file.php?id=$1 [NC,QSA,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^dir2/example/([0-9]+) dir2/example.php?id=$1 [NC,QSA,L]

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ $1.php [L]

Last rule will serve /file.php when URI is example.com/file/

Note that if you serve example.com/file (no trailing slash) then Apache's mod_dir module will add a trailing slash in the end to make it example.com/file/ and then server /file.php.

Turning off this trailing slash behavior is considered a security risk and it may expose your internal directory structure to your visitors.