Rewrite from http to https issues

[ControlZ]

I am looking for some assistance with a rewrite rule. I want to redirect users who access a link to a secure page (site is coded with https for these links but I am concerned that users that discover these pages via a search directory will land on an un-secure page.

Here is the rule I have written:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$
RewriteRule ^shop\/giftcards\.php$ "https\:\/\/www\.thisdomain\.com\/shop\/giftcards\.php" [R=301,L]

The above returns an error message that the redirect will never work.

[lucy24]

Well, that's reassuring.

User requests /shop/giftcards.php in some domain or other.

They get redirected to
[thisdomain.com...]

Because of the way redirects work, this sends them all the way outside and then they come back, now asking for
/shop/giftcards.php

within
www.thisdomain.com

Does this fit the shop/giftcards.php rule and the ^.*$ condition? Ay-yup, says mod_rewrite, it does. So redirect them to
[thisdomain.com...]

Because of the way redirects work, this sends them all the way outside and then they come back, now asking for
/shop/giftcards.php

within
www.thisdomain.com

Does this fit the shop/giftcards.php rule and the ^.*$ condition? Ay-yup, says mod_rewrite, it does. So redirect them to
[thisdomain.com...]

Because of the way redirects work, this sends them all the way outside and then they come back, now asking for
/shop/giftcards.php

within
www.thisdomain.com

Does this fit the shop/giftcards.php rule and the ^.*$ condition? Ay-yup, says mod_rewrite, it does. So redirect them to
[thisdomain.com...]

Are you getting the idea? ;)

[ControlZ]

I see what you are saying. What would be the correct way to approach this?

[g1smd]

Use a RewriteCond to test %{SERVER_PORT} to see if the request was NOT on port 443. If true, redirect.

Slashes do not need to escaped in RegEx patterns.

Nothing needs to be escaped in the rule target.

[lucy24]

Nothing needs to be escaped in the rule target.

I was scratching my head over that too, but decided one answer was enough. I'm surprised the target wasn't interpreted as (literal text)

www\.thisdomain\.com\/shop\/giftcards\.php

which would probably never get past the DNS. And if it did, it would land in a 404 rather than an infinite loop. Nice of mod_rewrite to read your mind and know you didn't mean it about all the backslashes ;)