Removing index.php from ExpressionEngine URLs¶

Beginning with the release of ExpressionEngine 2.2, EllisLab can now offer limited official support for removing index.php from your URLs.

index.php appears in your URLs because it is the file responsible for processing all requests to the system. In a URL such as http://yourdomain.com/index.php/template_group/template the template_group/template segments are simply information passed to index.php and do not refer to actual files or folders on the server.

Many servers support a technique called URL rewriting, which allows you to hide the index.php portion of the URL behind the scenes.

Requirements¶

UNIX-based hosting
Apache 2.x or later with mod_rewrite installed and enabled
ExpressionEngine 2.2 or later

1. Create an .htaccess file¶

Using your FTP client, create a new file named .htaccess (including the leading period) in the same folder as your site’s main index.php file.

Note: Files beginning with a period are hidden by default on some operating systems, including Mac OS X. Ensure your FTP client is set to show all files, including hidden ones.

Then add the following code to this newly created .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        RewriteEngine On

        # Removes index.php
        RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

        # If 404s, "No Input File" or every URL returns the same thing
        # make it /index.php?/$1 above (add the question mark)
</IfModule>

2. Update General Configuration¶

In the Control Panel, go to Admin > General Configuration, set the Name of your site’s index page to blank (empty), and click Submit.

3. Test¶

Test your site’s links to ensure they are working properly with index.php removed.

Some common problems include links returning 404s, a “No Input File Specified” error, or all links returning the same content. This can often be the case with hosts that require you to force query strings, such as GoDaddy. If this happens, try adding a question mark as described in the .htaccess comments (preceeded with a #) above, so that the line:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

becomes:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

If you encounter a problem, you can rename the .htaccess file to something else (it only takes effect when it is named .htaccess) and set the Name of your site’s index page back to index.php.

Finished!¶

Note that Technical Support Staff may, during troubleshooting, ask you to reduce your .htaccess file to only these settings. Any additional content questions may be moved to the Community Help forum.

Note: If using the Multiple Site Manager you can repeat the above steps for each site, assuming each site has its own public_html or webroot folder.

[ Permalink ] Posted by: vlad_i on 8 August 2011 11:38pm
	Note: If you copy and pasted the .htaccess code from above make sure that in your file the code looks like the code above (line spacing). `<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On # Removes index.php RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif\|jpe?g\|png)$ [NC] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.)$ /index.php/$1 [L] # If 404s, "No Input File" or every URL returns the same thing # make it /index.php?/$1 above (add the question mark) </IfModule>` I just copied and pasted it from this page into the file and it looked like this: `<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On # Removes index.php RewriteCond $1 !\.(gif\|jpe?g\|png)$ [NC] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.)$ /index.php/$1 [L] # If 404s, "No Input File" or every URL returns the same thing # make it /index.php?/$1 above (add the question mark) </IfModule>` It took down the whole site. Took me hours of debugging to come back to the .htaccess file.
[ Permalink ] Posted by: BridgingUnit on 20 July 2011 12:40pm
	Or, if that doesn’t work, to actually add the subfolder path like so: `RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /my-sub-folder/index.php/$1 [L]` if EE is installed somewhere like http://mydomain.com/my-sub-folder/
[ Permalink ] Posted by: Dave @ Exp:resso on 8 July 2011 6:17pm
	If you are running EE in a subfolder (not on the root of your domain), you will probably need to change the line: `RewriteRule ^(.)$ /index.php/$1 [L]` to read: `RewriteRule ^(.)$ index.php/$1 [L]` (notice the missing slash before index.php)