I'd like to exclude a path that matches a rule from booting WordPress. The normal way I'd approach this is using the last flag [L] in a rule before all the others.

To keep things simple in this example, I'll just pretend I want to match a simple path /foo/.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^foo/?$ - [L]

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

However, this does not work. A few other options are suggested in this older Stack Overflow post, but none of them work (neither for myself nor anyone in the comments of that post).

I did try this rewrite condition instead of the rule:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/?(foo/.*)$

As well as adding ErrorDocument 401 default to the end of the .htaccess document.

I'd like to exclude a path that matches a rule from booting WordPress. The normal way I'd approach this is using the last flag [L] in a rule before all the others.

To keep things simple in this example, I'll just pretend I want to match a simple path /foo/.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^foo/?$ - [L]

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

However, this does not work. A few other options are suggested in this older Stack Overflow post, but none of them work (neither for myself nor anyone in the comments of that post).

I did try this rewrite condition instead of the rule:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/?(foo/.*)$

As well as adding ErrorDocument 401 default to the end of the .htaccess document.

• redirect
• apache

• How exactly is it not working? Is WordPress showing its error 404 page? – Sally CJ Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 5:49
• Yeah, the redirect just fails, so if the page exists it goes to /foo, if the page doesn't exist it displays the theme's 404. Basically the rule doesn't preclude Wordpress from being routed to. – Orun Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 16:26
• I'm actually also getting the error 404, but that should be the expected outcome in my case since the path (/foo) doesn't exist and the rewrite is not being redirected to any scripts. Try deactivating plugins and/or try a default theme? Edit: I mean, I'm seeing the default error page that's served by Apache and not WordPress. – Sally CJ Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 16:35
• 1 Yes, the RewriteRule ^foo/?$ - [L] and I put it in the exact same place as in the question - below the RewriteEngine On. But that IfModule block is the only content of my .htaccess file. Could it be a caching issue? Try clearing your browser and site cache, and try a different browser as well, and see if that helps? – Sally CJ Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 20:42
• 1 Thanks for testing, must be something in my apache config – Orun Commented Jun 28, 2019 at 15:49

3 Answers 3

One small hiccup is that you'll need to update RewriteRule ./ in that second to last line. Here is an updated (and tested) snippet for you:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/foo/.*$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ./ /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I tested both:

• https://www.domain/foo/
• https://www.domain/foo/bar/

Hope that helps!!

You should use RewriteCond instead of RewriteRule. Use this:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/foo/

So, for example, the full code could be like this:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/foo/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

The following rule works for me

RewriteRule ^(foo)($|/) - [L]

meaning, any path beginning with foo like /foo/, /foo/bar/ or whatever, leads to the Apache 404 instead of the themes 404; under the assumption that there is no actual directory with that path.

The rule has to be before the last standard line of the WordPress block:

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

And it doesn't really matter, if it is after RewriteBase /, it can be before it; it was previously just hastily and sloppily worded on my part.

Which would give you the chance to leave the block between # BEGIN WordPress and # END WordPress untouched, if you'd like to do so. By putting

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteRule ^(foo)($|/) - [L]
</IfModule>

in front of # BEGIN WordPress.

You might want to prevent the path /foo/ from being created in WordPress, this came to mind:

add_filter( 'wp_unique_post_slug', 'no_more_foo_wp_unique_post_slug', 2, 6 );
function no_more_foo_wp_unique_post_slug( 
  $slug, $post_ID, $post_status, $post_type, $post_parent, $original_slug 
) {
  if ( $post_parent === 0 ) {
    $pattern = '/^foo$/';
    $replace = 'bar';
    $slug   = preg_replace( $pattern, $replace, $slug );
  }
  return $slug;
}