The .htaccess is a distributed configuration file, and is how Apache handles configuration changes on a per-directory basis.
WordPress uses this file to manipulate how Apache serves files from its root directory, and subdirectories thereof. Most notably, WP modifies this file to be able to handle pretty permalinks.
This page may be used to restore a corrupted .htaccess file (e.g. a misbehaving plugin).
# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# END WordPress
If you activated Multisite on WordPress 3.5 or later, use one of these.
# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subfolder network type: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/htaccess/#multisite
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
# END WordPress Multisite
# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subdomain network type: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/htaccess/#multisite
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^wp-admin$ wp-admin/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
# END WordPress Multisite
If you originally installed WordPress with 3.4 or older and activated Multisite then, you need to use one of these:
WordPress 3.0 through 3.4.2
# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subfolder network type: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/htaccess/#multisite
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]
# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
# END WordPress Multisite
# BEGIN WordPress Multisite
# Using subdomain network type: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/htaccess/#multisite
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
# END WordPress Multisite
Any options preceded by a + are added to the options currently in force, and any options preceded by a – are removed from the options currently in force.
Possible values for the Options directive are any combination of:
None
All options are turned off.
All
All options except for MultiViews. This is the default setting.
ExecCGI
Execution of CGI scripts using mod_cgi is permitted.
FollowSymLinks
The server will follow symbolic links in this directory.
Includes
Server-side includes provided by mod_include are permitted.
IncludesNOEXEC
Server-side includes are permitted, but the #exec cmd and #exec cgi are disabled.
Indexes
URL maps to a directory, and no DirectoryIndex, a formatted listing of the directory.
MultiViews
Content negotiated “MultiViews” are allowed using mod_negotiation.
SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Only follow symbolic links where target is owned by the same user id as the link.
This will disable all options, and then only enable FollowSymLinks, which is necessary for mod_rewrite.
Options None
Options FollowSymLinks
DirectoryIndex Directive sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory is requested.
Several URLs may be given, in which case the server will return the first one that it finds.
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html /index.php
DefaultLanguage Directive will cause all files that do not already have a specific language tag associated with it will use this.
DefaultLanguage en
Set the default character encoding sent in the HTTP header. See Setting charset information in .htaccess
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
Set Charset for Specific Files
AddType 'text/html; charset=UTF-8' .html
Set for specific files
AddCharset UTF-8 .html
The ServerSignature Directive allows the configuration of a trailing footer line under server-generated documents. Optionally add a line containing the server version and virtual host name to server-generated pages (internal error documents, FTP directory listings, mod_status and mod_info output etc., but not CGI generated documents or custom error documents).
On
adds a line with the server version number and ServerName of the serving virtual host
Off
suppresses the footer line
creates a “mailto:” reference to the ServerAdmin of the referenced document
SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN admin@site.com
ServerSignature Email
The below will cause any requests for files ending in the specified extensions to not be displayed in the browser but instead force a “Save As” dialog so the client can download.
AddType application/octet-stream .avi .mpg .mov .pdf .xls .mp4
The AddOutputFilter Directive maps the filename extension extension to the filters which will process responses from the server before they are sent to the client. This is in addition to any filters defined elsewhere, including SetOutputFilter and AddOutputFilterByType. This mapping is merged over any already in force, overriding any mappings that already exist for the same extension.
See also Enable Compression
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml application/xml application/xhtml+xml text/javascript text/css application/x-javascript
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
Force Compression for certain files
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
The Header Directive lets you send HTTP headers for every request, or just specific files. You can view a sites HTTP Headers using Firebug, Chrome Dev Tools, Wireshark or Advanced HTTP Request / Response Headers.
Header set X-Pingback "https://example.com/xmlrpc.php"
Header set Content-Language "en-US"
This will unset HTTP headers, using always will try extra hard to remove them.
Header unset Pragma
Header always unset WP-Super-Cache
Header always unset X-Pingback
This is very useful for protecting the wp-login.php file. You can use this Advanced Htpasswd/Htdigest file creator.
Basic Authentication
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Password Protected"
AuthUserFile /full/absolute/path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Satisfy All
Digest Authentication
AuthType Digest
AuthName "Password Protected"
AuthDigestDomain /wp-login.php https://example.com/wp-login.php
AuthUserFile /full/absolute/path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Satisfy All
This is a way to only allow access for IP addresses listed. Note usage of RequireAny instead of RequireAll.
<RequireAny>
Require ip 192.0.2.123
Require ip 2001:0DB8:1111:2222:3333:4444:5555:6666
</RequireAny>
This denies all web access to your wp-config file, htaccess/htpasswd and WordPress debug.log. On installed site, consider adding install.php as well.
<FilesMatch "^(wp-config\.php|\.htaccess|\.htpasswd|debug\.log)$">
Require all denied
</FilesMatch>
This will force SSL, and require the exact hostname or else it will redirect to the SSL version. Useful in a /wp-admin/.htaccess file.
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "www.example.com"
ErrorDocument 403 https://www.example.com