Rewrite virtual servers directory into a top level domain - regex

Question

I would like to rewrite directories of my RootDocument into thei'r own addresses.
For exaimple, I would like to be able to visit: http://localhost/FOO and be redirected to http://FOO.dev. Please note that the URL domain is static ass all subdirectory domains will have the same tol-level domain. I need to create a redirect within chunk of code:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName 127.0.0.1
ServerAlias localhost
DocumentRoot /usr/local/var/www
<Location />
Options All
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Location>
<LocationMatch ^/[^.].+/$>
RewriteEngine on
/*
I NEED A REWRITE HERE WHEN I REACH THE DIRECTORY LOCATION
AS LOCATION IS ALREADY MATCHED, I'M NOT SURE HOW TO EXTRACT IT
*/
</LocationMatch>
<LocationMatch ^/[.].+/$>
Options none
AllowOverride none
Require all denied
</LocationMatch>
</VirtualHost>
Since I have already figured out how to get into directories I need to be at, how would I use my logic to extract and redirect me into correct place?

Answer 1

You need a two-step-approach for this, since you have to handle two separate requests in the scenario you want to set up:
This is the rule to redirect clients to the new host name:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?(\w+)(/?.*)$ http://$1.dev$2 [R=301]
This is the rule inside that host to remap the request onto the internal folder in the file system again:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(\w+)\.dev$
RewriteCond /%1 -d
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)$ /%1/$1 [END]
Obviously the rewriting needs to be loaded and enabled for this.
In case you receive back a http status 500 ("internal server error") for the first request (the one to be redirected) chances are that you are using a very old version of the apache http server. In that case try replacing the [END] flag with the [L] flag...
Above rules will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or in dynamic configuration files. However you should always prefer to place such rules inside the http servers (virtual) host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (.htaccess style files). Those files are notoriously error prone, hard to debug and they really slow down the server. They are only supported as a last option for situations where you do not have control over the host configuration (read: really cheap hosting service providers) or if you have an application that relies on writing its own rewrite rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).