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From: Joshua Kugler <joshua.kugler@uaf.edu>
Organization: UAF Center for Distance Education - IT
To: users@httpd.apache.org
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:41:16 -0800
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References: <1129825988.4357c6c426677@mail.netnevada.net>
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Subject: Re: [users@httpd] make URL's case insensitive

On Thursday 20 October 2005 08:33, dogbert@netnevada.net wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>    I run apache 2.0.5x, and was wondering if there is a way to make URL's
> (after the domain portion) case insensitive in apache (all URL's), for
> example:
>
> www.foobar.com/JUNKFOOD.htm (client browser)
>
> would be processed by httpd as:
>
> www.foobar.com/junkfood.htm (server side)
>
> In reading the apache FAQ in 1.3, it says the following:
>
> You can't! The reasons are: first, that, case translations for arbitrary
> length URLs cannot be done via regex patterns and corresponding
> substitutions. One needs a per-character pattern like the sed/Perl
> tr|..|..| feature. Second, just making URLs always upper or lower case does
> not solve the whole problem of case-INSENSITIVE URLs, because URLs actually
> have to be rewritten to the correct case-variant for the file residing on
> the filesystem in order to allow Apache to access the file. And the Unix
> filesystem is always case-SENSITIVE.
>
> But there is a module named mod_speling.c in the Apache distribution. Try
> this module to help correct people who use mis-cased URLs.
>
> Barring this, can mod_speling be set to not provide a list of files that
> are a 'close match' providing that the exact match is not found?

What about creating a 404 cgi error document that will present the user with a 
message saying "Did you mean www.foobar.com/junkfood.htm"  That way, they 
will find the file, and be reminded about the spelling for the next time.

j----- k-----

-- 
Joshua Kugler
CDE System Administrator
http://distance.uaf.edu/

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