htaccess stops after reforming url before redirect

Question

I want to be able to have the an URL be reformed in an htaccess file and redirect a file that is no longer present.

Taking this:

http://www.example.com/foo/thing.htm

and having this be renamed to:

https://example.com/foo/

I've used the following code

RewriteEngine On

Redirect 301 /foo/thing.htm /foo/

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
    
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(?:www\.)?(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%1%{REQUEST_URI}

The problem I have had is that when the Redirect 301 happens, the RewriteCond is skipped according to https://htaccess.madewithlove.com/

Redirect 301 /foo/thing.htm /foo/

The new url is http://www.example.com/foo/

Test are stopped, a redirect will be made with status code 301

and the output is http://www.example.com/foo/

How can I get all of my commands in my htaccess file be ran so that the URL is processed properly in addition to any other additional commands such as cache control and webp compatability?

Answer 1

The problem is in the order of things.

You have basically 3 commands:

1. Redirect using a 301 code from /foo/thing.htm to /foo/
2. If the url is http, redirect to https
3. (If the url is http, OR, has www.) AND (optionally has www.) then redirect to https without www

Note that once a rule is triggered, the rest aren't. Therefore going to:

http://www.example.com/foo/thing.htm

is only triggering rule #1, and redirecting to http://www.example.com/foo/

Also, rule #3 is unnecessary complex, since rule #2 already does it.

I would rewrite your .htaccess as this:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}  [L,R=301]
    
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(?:www\.)?(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%1%{REQUEST_URI}  [L,R=301]

Redirect 301 /foo/thing.htm /foo/