What is the importance of mod_rewrite?

Question

If my hosting provider does not provide mod_rewrite mode. What thing will get effect on my wordpress?

I bought a hosting, they claim they does not provide it. I have installed WP and the web is running. I dont know what features I am missing.

The output of following command does not have mod_rewrite anywhere.

<? php phpinfo(); ?>

I put following contents in my .htaccess file. And mydomain.com/google.html redirect to google.com.

Options +FollowSymLinks
Redirect /google.html http://www.google.com

That means mod_rewrite is working? And my hosting representative does not know this.

Thanks.

Milo · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-23 16:19:46Z

1

the Redirect directive is part of Apache's mod_alias, not mod_rewrite.

mod_rewrite enables "pretty" permalinks, ie: http://yourdomain.com/a-post-title/ rather than "ugly" permalinks ie:http://yourdomain.com/?p=99.

WordPress will operate just fine without mod_rewrite and pretty permalinks, it's just not as attractive or SEO friendly.

answered Dec 23, 2011 at 16:19

Milo

78.8k4 gold badges127 silver badges168 bronze badges

My website has this URL yansrhr.org/celebrations-of-international-year-of-youth. And it means mod_rewirte is working in that server? Here is phpinfo page. yansrhr.org/phpmyinfo.php
– 74H1R
Commented Dec 23, 2011 at 16:35
@Tahir Akram - mod_rewrite is an Apache webserver module, not part of PHP, it won't show up in phpinfo. add RewriteEngine on to an htaccess file in a directory and then load that directory in your browser. If you don't get a 500 server error, then mod_rewrite is enabled. It would appear that it is though, if you're using pretty permalinks.
– Milo
Commented Dec 23, 2011 at 17:02
I used these lines in htaccess. RewriteEngine On Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteRule ^joomla\.html joomla.org? [R=301,L] and it do redirect. Hosting guy does not know this.
– 74H1R
Commented Dec 23, 2011 at 17:25

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1