catch rule for old URLs

[seandelaney]

My catches that I use for Google wont work with my current rules... :-(

Code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^about\.php$ /about/         <- catches old URL request from Google Index
RewriteRule ^about(/)?$ about.php [nc]  <- current rule, shows "about.php" when URL is domain.com/about/

Error I get is: Internal Server Error

What im doing to mimic a request coming form Google is typing into my address bar the URL that Google has indexed:

http://www.domain.com/about.php

The 1st rule above should catch this old URL from Google and write it as http://www.domain.com/about/

Then i want to use my current rule to open about.php when URL like: http://www.domain.com/about/ is request...

Am I doing this the wrong way?

[GrandSchtroumpf]

Looks like you are in an infinite loop.
I guess you should redirect the old url instead of rewriting, or google will see duplicate content:

RewriteRule ^about\.php$ /about/ [R]

It's been a while since i last explored the details of mod rewrite.  I simply rewrite all url to index.php and i use php to parse the request and serve the appropriate page/redirection/error.  This way i don't have to mess with that complicated syntax.

[seandelaney]

OK Thank you...