htaccess file

The .htaccess is a distributed configuration file, and is how Apache handles configuration changes on a per-directory basis.

WordPress uses this file to manipulate how Apache serves files from its root directory, and subdirectories thereof. Most notably, WP modifies this file to be able to handle pretty permalinks.

This page may be used to restore a corrupted .htaccess file (e.g. a misbehaving plugin).

Basic WP

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# END WordPress

Multisite

WordPress 3.5 and up 

If you activated Multisite on WordPress 3.5 or later, use one of these.

Subfolder Example:

# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subfolder network type: https://wordpress.org/support/article/htaccess/#multisite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

# END WordPress Multisite

SubDomain Example:

# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subdomain network type: https://wordpress.org/support/article/htaccess/#multisite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^wp-admin$ wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

# END WordPress Multisite

WordPress 3.4 and below

If you originally installed WordPress with 3.4 or older and activated Multisite then, you need to use one of these:

SubFolder Example:

WordPress 3.0 through 3.4.2

# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subfolder network type: https://wordpress.org/support/article/htaccess/#multisite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

# END WordPress Multisite

SubDomain Example:

# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subdomain network type: https://wordpress.org/support/article/htaccess/#multisite

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]

# END WordPress Multisite

General Examples

Options

Any options preceded by a + are added to the options currently in force, and any options preceded by a – are removed from the options currently in force.

Possible values for the Options directive are any combination of:

None

All options are turned off.

All

All options except for MultiViews. This is the default setting.

ExecCGI

Execution of CGI scripts using mod_cgi is permitted.

FollowSymLinks

The server will follow symbolic links in this directory.

Includes

Server-side includes provided by mod_include are permitted.

IncludesNOEXEC

Server-side includes are permitted, but the #exec cmd and #exec cgi are disabled.

Indexes

URL maps to a directory, and no DirectoryIndex, a formatted listing of the directory.

MultiViews

Content negotiated “MultiViews” are allowed using mod_negotiation.

SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

Only follow symbolic links where the target is owned by the same user id as the link.

This will disable all options, and then only enable FollowSymLinks, which is necessary for mod_rewrite.

Options None
Options FollowSymLinks

DirectoryIndex

DirectoryIndex sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory is requested.

Several URLs may be given, in which case the server will return the first one that it finds.

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html /index.php

DefaultLanguage

DefaultLanguage will cause all files that do not already have a specific language tag associated with it will use this.

DefaultLanguage en

Default Charset 

Set the default character encoding sent in the HTTP header. See: Setting charset information in .htaccess

AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

Set Charset for Specific Files

AddType 'text/html; charset=UTF-8' .html

Set for specific files

AddCharset UTF-8 .html

ServerSignature

The ServerSignature directive allows the configuration of a trailing footer line under server-generated documents. Optionally add a line containing the server version and virtual hostname to server-generated pages (internal error documents, FTP directory listings, mod_status, and mod_info output, etc., but not CGI-generated documents or custom error documents).

On

adds a line with the server version number and ServerName of the serving virtual host

Off

suppresses the footer line

Email

creates a “mailto:” reference to the ServerAdmin of the referenced document

SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN admin@site.com
ServerSignature Email

Force Files to be Downloaded

The below will cause any requests for files ending in the specified extensions to not be displayed in the browser but instead, force a “Save As” dialog so the client can download.

AddType application/octet-stream .avi .mpg .mov .pdf .xls .mp4

HTTP Compression

The AddOutputFilter directive maps the filename extension to the filters which will process responses from the server before they are sent to the client. This is in addition to any filters defined elsewhere, including SetOutputFilter and AddOutputFilterByType. This mapping is merged over any already in force, overriding any mappings that already exist for the same extension.

See also: https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/EnableCompression

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml application/xml application/xhtml+xml text/javascript text/css application/x-javascript
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html

Force Compression for certain files

SetOutputFilter DEFLATE

Send Custom HTTP Headers

The Header directive lets you send HTTP headers for every request or just specific files. You can view a site’s HTTP Headers using Firebug, Chrome Dev Tools, Wireshark, or an online tool.

Header set X-Pingback "http://www.askapache.com/xmlrpc.php"
Header set Content-Language "en-US"

Unset HTTP Headers

This will unset HTTP headers, using always will try extra hard to remove them.

Header unset Pragma
Header always unset WP-Super-Cache
Header always unset X-Pingback

Password Protect Login

This is very useful for protecting the wp-login.php file. You can use this htpasswd generator.

Basic Authentication

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Password Protected"
AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Satisfy All

Digest Authentication

AuthType Digest
AuthName "Password Protected"
AuthDigestDomain /wp-login.php https://www.askapache.com/wp-login.php
AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Satisfy All

Require Specific IP

This is a way to only allow certain IP addresses to be allowed access.

ErrorDocument 401 default
ErrorDocument 403 default

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 198.101.159.98 localhost

Protect Sensitive Files 

This denies all web access to your wp-config file, error_logs, php.ini, and htaccess/htpasswds.

Order deny,allow
Deny from all

Require SSL

This will force SSL, and require the exact hostname or else it will redirect to the SSL version. Useful in a /wp-admin/.htaccess file.

SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "www.wordpress.com"
ErrorDocument 403 https://www.wordpress.com

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.