500 Internal Server Error when using .htaccess with RewriteEngine

Question

I am on the shared host Bounceweb and I am trying to add some rewrite rules to make my links look prettier.

One of these rules is to make the url: http://mysite.com/upload point to: http://mysite.com/upload.php. I have this in my .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^upload$ upload.php

but all it's giving me is a 500 Internal Server Error. I looked at my logs and this comes up a lot:

[alert] [client 81.179.29.185] /home/minecraf/public_html/.htaccess: Invalid command '\xef\xbb\xbfRewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Does this mean my host doesn't support .htaccess? Pretty lame if they don't. I've already tried changing the permissions of .htaccess to 777 and it doesn't help.

Thanks!

nitro2k01 · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 02:55:11Z

\xef\xbb\xbf are three invisible junk characters (at least from Apache's perspective) called the Unicode BOM, or byte order mark. Apache thinks that those characters are part of the command that follows right after. This is what you see in the log, though the characters are escaped so they're visible to the naked eye. \xef\xbb\xbfRewriteEngine

In your editor, especially if your editor is Notepad, make sure you're saving your file without a BOM. This should be selectable in the save as dialog or elsewhere.

ahhh I see. I used my FTP clients own editor to do the .htaccess, which is probably why this happened. Just did it with notepad and everything is fine now, thanks :)
you just saved my life! I couldn't figure out why my rewrite constantly gave a 500 error :) Saved it as Asci and it worked like a charm

M Rostami · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-02 11:47:23Z

It might be the mod_rewrite module is not loaded.

Windows xampp : Open xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf and uncomment mod_rewrite module.
Windows wamp : Open wamp/bin/apache/Apache2.x.x/conf/httpd.conf and uncomment mod_rewrite module.
Ubuntu : a2enmod rewrite && service apache2 restart or cp /etc/apache2/mods-available/rewrite.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/rewrite.load

Then reload apache

ap2 · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-11 15:50:36Z

11

To remove the BOM in unix use vi and below command

: set nobomb

: wq

edited Sep 11, 2015 at 15:50

answered Sep 11, 2015 at 15:44

ap2

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Ben · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-26 21:09:46Z

10

Try this:

a2enmod rewrite /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

edited Oct 26, 2012 at 21:09

Ben

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answered Apr 4, 2012 at 13:40

hemstar7

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Sujit Agarwal · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 02:50:32Z

2

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / rewriterule ^upload$ upload.php </IfModule>

try this.

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 2:50

Sujit Agarwal

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1 Comment

Josh Over a year ago

Nope, still coming up with a 500 error. Error log says: [alert] [client 81.179.29.185] /home/minecraf/public_html/.htaccess: </IfModule> without matching <IfModule> section

CoderGuy123 · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14 23:19:17Z

2

I had this problem and solved it with:

sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo service apache2 restart

edited Jun 14, 2017 at 23:19

CoderGuy123

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answered Aug 10, 2013 at 11:19

Mohamad Khani

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Borya from GTranslate · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-27 09:52:07Z

Just save your .htaccess file with UTF-8 encoding (without BOM) and upload. Recommended to use Notepad++. (in my case that helped).

atb

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