.htaccess redirect

[geohei]

Hi.

I need to redirect http: requests from a directory (and only this directory) in olddomain.com to the same directory in newdomain. This directory contains sub-directories which include files (of course).

So ... the complete content of directory www.olddomain.com/downloads was copied to www.newdomain.com/downloads.

http://www.olddomain.com/downloads/subdir/files.zip
http://www.newdomain.com/downloads/subdir/files.zip

How can I redirect using .htaccess?

Many thanks,

[edited by: phranque at 11:38 am (utc) on Jan 1, 2015]
[edit reason] unlinked urls [/edit]

[lucy24]

What have you tried so far, and what happened?

Note that htaccess is a location, not a function. Depending on what else you're already doing, the redirect can be done with either mod_alias (Redirect by that name) or mod_rewrite (RewriteRule). In fact, redirecting entire directories is pretty much the textbook case of what mod_alias is good at.

[wslade]

I like the mod_alias route lucy24 mentions. There are several other ways to do what you want to do. You can do a php redirect:

<?php header http://www.newdomain.com/downloads/subdir/files.zip '); ?> 

Put this in the old file location.

You can also use the refresh html tag to redirect a page.

If SEO is an issue, you should be sure add the appropriate error message.

[geohei]

This .htaccess in the downloads directory worked.
However I'm not sure if there are no drawbacks.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/downloads/$1 [R=301,L]

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld, geohei!

your solution looks good - let us know if you have any problems.

[lucy24]

The quoted RewriteRule will work for all requests all the time. If the rule is located in a directory where absolutely everything is to be redirected, then yes that's fine.

One caveat: By default, RewriteRules are not inherited. So if you have any RewriteRules in your root-level htaccess, requests for material in the /downloads/ directory will ignore these RewriteRules. In particular: If you have RewriteRules ending in [F] (for "get out of my sight, you nasty robot") they will have no effect on the /downloads/ directory. You could add a

RewriteOptions inherit

though this doesn't always work as intended. If you don't have any earlier rules that need to be inherited, you're good to go.

[geohei]

Ok ... understood.
Many thanks!