newbie mod_rewrite confusion

[newborn]

Hello.

Sure would appreciate some help with this voodoo.

I am a total beginner with mod_rewrite.

At this point I am just trying to understand whether there is something up with my syntax or something with the hosting.

 

I have this very simple file to test if mod_rewrite is even working:

 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule hello\.html hello2.html
</IfModule>

 

Navigating to http://xxx.xx.xxx.xx/hello.html, the server returns this error:

The requested URL /usr/home/cen887/www/htdocs/hello2.html was not found on this server.

 

I can navigate directly to http://xxx.xx.xxx.xx/hello2.html no problem.

 

The hosting company used this to prove that mod_rewrite was active, and it does work:

 

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.google.com [L]

 

I guess I am totally perplexed with the above error, since I know that file exists, what would keep the browser from simply navigating to that file using the htaccess file?

 

Thank you very much for any advice!

[corbin]

Try:

 

 

  RewriteRule hello\.html /hello2.html

[newborn]

Hi Corbin.

That worked - thank you!

 

Just to confirm what I am looking at...

backslash is escaping the period before the file extension for hello.html

forwardslash is stepping into the directory one level

 

Correct?

[corbin]

No.

 

 

Forward slash (or \ under Windows) means root of the drive.

 

 

It worked here because things are relative to the web root.  For some reason then, when the / isn't put at the front, the rewrite uses the server side path.