Redirects

A redirect tells the browser to request a different URL. Apache offers simple redirect directives from the mod_alias module, which is enabled by default.

The Redirect Directive

# Send one path to a new location
Redirect /old-page.html /new-page.html

You can also redirect to a full URL on another domain:

Redirect /docs https://docs.example.com/

Permanent vs Temporary

Add a status to tell browsers and search engines whether the change is permanent:

Redirect permanent /old https://example.com/new
Redirect temp /promo https://example.com/sale

permanent sends a 301; temp sends a 302.

RedirectMatch

RedirectMatch uses a regular expression for flexible patterns:

# Redirect every .htm file to its .html version
RedirectMatch 301 ^/(.*)\.htm$ /$1.html

The captured group (.*) is reused as $1 in the target.

Apply Changes

sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

For simple moves, use Redirect. For complex rules, RedirectMatch or mod_rewrite give more control.