Question about subdomains

How to redirect for wildcard subdomains?

[craig1972]

Hi,

I have a script for extranet access that is like this:
[mydomain.com...]

I want to set up a rewrite rule that will allow
[<clientName>.mydomain.com...]

to be pointed to the above path automatically.

How can I set this up?

Thanks!

[bakedjake]

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^.]+)\.mydomain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.+) %{HTTP_HOST}$1 [C]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)\.mydomain\.com(.*) http://mydomain.com/cgi-bin/clients.pl?clientName=$1 [R,L]

... should work. I didn't test it, so it's off the top of my head. Let me know.

BTW - Use PT instead of R in the parameters if you want it to be transparent.

<Edited: Typo>

[craig1972]

Thanks bakedjake, but this gives me a DNS error. Says domain xxxx.mydomain.com is not found. What am I missing? Thanks!

[bakedjake]

You have to add xxxxx.mydomain.com to your DNS? :)

[craig1972]

But surely I cannot add all the variables to my DNS! Is it possible to have this without any DNS hassles? Alternatively, can I add it to DNS in my htaccess files because I am on a shared server?

Thank you.

[bakedjake]

If your DNS server supports wildcards, you can do it that way. My DNS server (djbdns) does. But that part is done in the DNS server. When a client requests a DNS name, the DNS server will have to know which IP address to point them to.

Tell them that you need a wildcard DNS entry that points *.mydomain.com to your IP address. It should be a simple one-line addition to their DNS configuration.

Then use the rewrite formula above - it will sort out the header name and send them to the right place.

If they won't add it for you, find a webhost that will.