Skip to main content

Default .htaccess code for Drupal websites

Scott avatar
Written by Scott
Updated over 6 years ago

We have to put correct codes in .htaccess file to work CMS's properly. Otherwise the internal links may through 'file not found error' while accessing the websites. Here I am pasting the default code for Drupal CMS. The installation folder for Drupal contains the .htaccess file. If not, create the file with proper ownership.


Paste the below code:


 #######
 # Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:
 #
 # Protect files and directories from prying eyes.

<FilesMatch
"\.(engine|inc|info|install|make|module|profile|test|po|sh|.*sql|theme|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl)(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)?$|^(\..*|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template|composer\.(json|lock))$|^#.*#$|\.php(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig\.save)$">

Order allow,deny

 # Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
Options -Indexes

 # Follow symbolic links in this directory.
Options +FollowSymLinks

 # Make Drupal handle any 404 errors.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

 # Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
​ 

 # Override PHP settings that cannot be changed at runtime. See
 # sites/default/default.settings.php and drupal_environment_initialize() in
 # includes/bootstrap.inc for settings that can be changed at runtime.  

 # PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2. 

php_flag magic_quotes_gpcoff
php_flag magic_quotes_sybaseoff
php_flag register_globalsoff
php_flag session.auto_startoff
php_value mbstring.http_inputpass
php_value mbstring.http_outputpass
php_flag mbstring.encoding_translationoff  


 # Requires mod_expires to be enabled.
 # Enable expirations.
ExpiresActive On


 # Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).
ExpiresDefault A1209600
​ 

 # Do not allow PHP scripts to be cached unless they explicitly send cache
 # headers themselves. Otherwise all scripts would have to overwrite the
 # headers set by mod_expires if they want another caching behavior. This may
 # fail if an error occurs early in the bootstrap process, and it may cause
 # problems if a non-Drupal PHP file is installed in a subdirectory.

ExpiresActive Off  

 # Various rewrite rules.

RewriteEngine on


 # Set "protossl" to "s" if we were accessed via https://.This is used later
 # if you enable "www." stripping or enforcement, in order to ensure that
 # you don't bounce between http and https.

RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl:s]


 # Make sure Authorization HTTP header is available to PHP
 # even when running as CGI or FastCGI.
​ 
RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]  


 # Block access to "hidden" directories whose names begin with a period. This
 # includes directories used by version control systems such as Subversion or
 # Git to store control files. Files whose names begin with a period, as well
 # as the control files used by CVS, are protected by the FilesMatch directive
 # above.
 #
 # NOTE: This only works when mod_rewrite is loaded. Without mod_rewrite, it is
 # not possible to block access to entire directories from .htaccess, because
 #is not allowed here.
 #
 # If you do not have mod_rewrite installed, you should remove these
 # directories from your webroot or otherwise protect them from being
 # downloaded. 

RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]  


 # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
 # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
 # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
 #
 # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
 # (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)
 # uncomment the following:
 # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
 # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
 # RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
 #
 # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
 # (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)
 # uncomment the following:
 # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
 # RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] 

 # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a
 # VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.
 # For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and
 # modify the following line:
 # RewriteBase /drupal    
 #
 # If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,
 # uncomment the following line:
 # RewriteBase /

 # Pass all requests not referring directly to files in the filesystem to
 # index.php. Clean URLs are handled in drupal_environment_initialize(). 

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]  


 # Rules to correctly serve gzip compressed CSS and JS files.
 # Requires both mod_rewrite and mod_headers to be enabled.

 # Serve gzip compressed CSS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.   

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.css $1\.css\.gz [QSA]  


 # Serve gzip compressed JS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip. 

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.js $1\.js\.gz [QSA]


 # Serve correct content types, and prevent mod_deflate double gzip. 

RewriteRule \.css\.gz$ - [T=text/css,E=no-gzip:1]
RewriteRule \.js\.gz$ - [T=text/javascript,E=no-gzip:1]


<FilesMatch "(\.js\.gz|\.css\.gz)$">
 # Serve correct encoding type.
Header set Content-Encoding gzip
 # Force proxies to cache gzipped & non-gzipped css/js files separately.
Header append Vary Accept-Encoding


 # Add headers to all responses.

 # Disable content sniffing, since it's an attack vector.  

Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff

 #######

Did this answer your question?