title: .htaccess not working (mod_rewrite)
body: <p>I have not having any luck getting my .htaccess with mod_rewrite working.  Basically all I am trying to do is remove 'www' from "<a href="http://www.example.com" rel="noreferrer">http://www.example.com</a>" and "<a href="https://www.example.com" rel="noreferrer">https://www.example.com</a>".</p>
  
  <p>If there is anything I am missing (conf files, etc let me know I willl update this)</p>
  
  <p>Here is my .htaccess file (located @ /var/www/site/trunk/html/)</p>
  
  <pre><code>Options +FollowSymLinks
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*) [NC]
  RewriteRule (.*) //%1/$1 [L,R=301]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My mod_rewrite is enabled:</p>
  
  <pre><code>root@s15348441:/etc/apache2/mods-available# more rewrite.load
  LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My apache config files:</p>
  
  <p>apache2.conf</p>
  
  <pre><code>#
  # Based upon the NCSA server configuration files originally by Rob McCool.
  #
  # This is the main Apache server configuration file.  It contains the
  # configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
  # See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/ for detailed information about
  # the directives.
  #
  # Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
  # what they do.  They're here only as hints or reminders.  If you are unsure
  # consult the online docs. You have been warned.  
  #
  # The configuration directives are grouped into three basic sections:
  #  1. Directives that control the operation of the Apache server process as a
  #     whole (the 'global environment').
  #  2. Directives that define the parameters of the 'main' or 'default' server,
  #     which responds to requests that aren't handled by a virtual host.
  #     These directives also provide default values for the settings
  #     of all virtual hosts.
  #  3. Settings for virtual hosts, which allow Web requests to be sent to
  #     different IP addresses or hostnames and have them handled by the
  #     same Apache server process.
  #
  # Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many
  # of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the
  # server will use that explicit path.  If the filenames do *not* begin
  # with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so "/var/log/apache2/foo.log"
  # with ServerRoot set to "" will be interpreted by the
  # server as "//var/log/apache2/foo.log".
  #
  
  ### Section 1: Global Environment
  #
  # The directives in this section affect the overall operation of Apache,
  # such as the number of concurrent requests it can handle or where it
  # can find its configuration files.
  #
  
  #
  # ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
  # configuration, error, and log files are kept.
  #
  # NOTE!  If you intend to place this on an NFS (or otherwise network)
  # mounted filesystem then please read the LockFile documentation (available
  # at &lt;URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.1/mod/mpm_common.html#lockfile&gt;);
  # you will save yourself a lot of trouble.
  #
  # Do NOT add a slash at the end of the directory path.
  #
  ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
  
  #
  # The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK.
  #
  #&lt;IfModule !mpm_winnt.c&gt;
  #&lt;IfModule !mpm_netware.c&gt;
  LockFile /var/lock/apache2/accept.lock
  #&lt;/IfModule&gt;
  #&lt;/IfModule&gt;
  
  #
  # PidFile: The file in which the server should record its process
  # identification number when it starts.
  # This needs to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
  #
  PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}
  
  #
  # Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out.
  #
  Timeout 300
  
  #
  # KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
  # one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate.
  #
  KeepAlive On
  
  #
  # MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow
  # during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount.
  # We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance.
  #
  MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
  
  #
  # KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from the
  # same client on the same connection.
  #
  KeepAliveTimeout 15
  
  ##
  ## Server-Pool Size Regulation (MPM specific)
  ## 
  
  # prefork MPM
  # StartServers: number of server processes to start
  # MinSpareServers: minimum number of server processes which are kept spare
  # MaxSpareServers: maximum number of server processes which are kept spare
  # MaxClients: maximum number of server processes allowed to start
  # MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves
  &lt;IfModule mpm_prefork_module&gt;
      StartServers          5
      MinSpareServers       5
      MaxSpareServers      10
      MaxClients          150
      MaxRequestsPerChild   0
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  
  # worker MPM
  # StartServers: initial number of server processes to start
  # MaxClients: maximum number of simultaneous client connections
  # MinSpareThreads: minimum number of worker threads which are kept spare
  # MaxSpareThreads: maximum number of worker threads which are kept spare
  # ThreadsPerChild: constant number of worker threads in each server process
  # MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves
  &lt;IfModule mpm_worker_module&gt;
      StartServers          2
      MaxClients          150
      MinSpareThreads      25
      MaxSpareThreads      75 
      ThreadsPerChild      25
      MaxRequestsPerChild   0
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  
  # These need to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
  User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
  Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}
  
  #
  # AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory
  # for additional configuration directives.  See also the AllowOverride
  # directive.
  #
  
  AccessFileName .htaccess
  
  #
  # The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being 
  # viewed by Web clients. 
  #
  &lt;Files ~ "^\.ht"&gt;
      Order allow,deny
      Deny from all
  &lt;/Files&gt;
  
  #
  # DefaultType is the default MIME type the server will use for a document
  # if it cannot otherwise determine one, such as from filename extensions.
  # If your server contains mostly text or HTML documents, "text/plain" is
  # a good value.  If most of your content is binary, such as applications
  # or images, you may want to use "application/octet-stream" instead to
  # keep browsers from trying to display binary files as though they are
  # text.
  #
  DefaultType text/plain
  
  
  #
  # HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP addresses
  # e.g., www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off).
  # The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people
  # had to knowingly turn this feature on, since enabling it means that
  # each client request will result in AT LEAST one lookup request to the
  # nameserver.
  #
  HostnameLookups Off
  
  # ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
  # If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a &lt;VirtualHost&gt;
  # container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
  # logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a &lt;VirtualHost&gt;
  # container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
  #
  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  
  #
  # LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
  # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
  # alert, emerg.
  #
  LogLevel warn
  
  # Include module configuration:
  Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.load
  Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.conf
  
  # Include all the user configurations:
  Include /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
  
  # Include ports listing
  Include /etc/apache2/ports.conf
  
  #
  # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
  # a CustomLog directive (see below).
  # If you are behind a reverse proxy, you might want to change %h into %{X-Forwarded-For}i
  #
  LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %&gt;s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
  LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %&gt;s %b" common
  LogFormat "%{Referer}i -&gt; %U" referer
  LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent
  
  #
  # ServerTokens
  # This directive configures what you return as the Server HTTP response
  # Header. The default is 'Full' which sends information about the OS-Type
  # and compiled in modules.
  # Set to one of:  Full | OS | Minor | Minimal | Major | Prod
  # where Full conveys the most information, and Prod the least.
  #
  ServerTokens Full
  
  #
  # Optionally add a line containing the server version and virtual host
  # name to server-generated pages (internal error documents, FTP directory 
  # listings, mod_status and mod_info output etc., but not CGI generated 
  # documents or custom error documents).
  # Set to "EMail" to also include a mailto: link to the ServerAdmin.
  # Set to one of:  On | Off | EMail
  #
  ServerSignature On
  
  
  #
  # Customizable error responses come in three flavors:
  # 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects
  #
  # Some examples:
  #ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo."
  #ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
  #ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl"
  #ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html
  #
  
  #
  # Putting this all together, we can internationalize error responses.
  #
  # We use Alias to redirect any /error/HTTP_&lt;error&gt;.html.var response to
  # our collection of by-error message multi-language collections.  We use 
  # includes to substitute the appropriate text.
  #
  # You can modify the messages' appearance without changing any of the
  # default HTTP_&lt;error&gt;.html.var files by adding the line:
  #
  #   Alias /error/include/ "/your/include/path/"
  #
  # which allows you to create your own set of files by starting with the
  # /usr/share/apache2/error/include/ files and copying them to /your/include/path/, 
  # even on a per-VirtualHost basis.  The default include files will display
  # your Apache version number and your ServerAdmin email address regardless
  # of the setting of ServerSignature.
  #
  # The internationalized error documents require mod_alias, mod_include
  # and mod_negotiation.  To activate them, uncomment the following 30 lines.
  
  #    Alias /error/ "/usr/share/apache2/error/"
  #
  #    &lt;Directory "/usr/share/apache2/error"&gt;
  #        AllowOverride None
  #        Options IncludesNoExec
  #        AddOutputFilter Includes html
  #        AddHandler type-map var
  #        Order allow,deny
  #        Allow from all
  #        LanguagePriority en cs de es fr it nl sv pt-br ro
  #        ForceLanguagePriority Prefer Fallback
  #    &lt;/Directory&gt;
  #
  #    ErrorDocument 400 /error/HTTP_BAD_REQUEST.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 401 /error/HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 403 /error/HTTP_FORBIDDEN.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 404 /error/HTTP_NOT_FOUND.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 405 /error/HTTP_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 408 /error/HTTP_REQUEST_TIME_OUT.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 410 /error/HTTP_GONE.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 411 /error/HTTP_LENGTH_REQUIRED.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 412 /error/HTTP_PRECONDITION_FAILED.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 413 /error/HTTP_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 414 /error/HTTP_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 415 /error/HTTP_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 500 /error/HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 501 /error/HTTP_NOT_IMPLEMENTED.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 502 /error/HTTP_BAD_GATEWAY.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 503 /error/HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE.html.var
  #    ErrorDocument 506 /error/HTTP_VARIANT_ALSO_VARIES.html.var
  
  
  
  # Include of directories ignores editors' and dpkg's backup files,
  # see README.Debian for details.
  
  # Include generic snippets of statements
  Include /etc/apache2/conf.d/
  
  # Include the virtual host configurations:
  Include /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My default config file for www on apache</p>
  
  <pre><code>NameVirtualHost *:80
  &lt;VirtualHost *:80&gt;
      ServerAdmin info@example.com
  
      #SSLEnable
      #SSLVerifyClient none
      #SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/ssl/crt/public.crt  
      #SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/ssl/private/private.key  
  
      DocumentRoot /var/www/site/trunk/html
      &lt;Directory /&gt;
          Options FollowSymLinks
          AllowOverride all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
      &lt;Directory /var/www/site/trunk/html&gt;
          Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
          AllowOverride all
          Order allow,deny
          allow from all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
      ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
      &lt;Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"&gt;
          AllowOverride None
          Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
          Order allow,deny
          Allow from all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
      ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  
      # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
      # alert, emerg.
      LogLevel warn
  
      CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
      ServerSignature On
  
      Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
      &lt;Directory "/usr/share/doc/"&gt;
          Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
          AllowOverride None
          Order deny,allow
          Deny from all
          Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
  &lt;/VirtualHost&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My ssl config file</p>
  
  <pre><code>NameVirtualHost *:443
  &lt;VirtualHost *:443&gt;
      ServerAdmin info@example.com
  
      #SSLEnable
      #SSLVerifyClient none
      #SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/ssl/crt/public.crt  
      #SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/ssl/private/private.key  
  
      DocumentRoot /var/www/site/trunk/html
      &lt;Directory /&gt;
          Options FollowSymLinks
          AllowOverride all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
      &lt;Directory /var/www/site/trunk/html&gt;
          Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
          AllowOverride all
          Order allow,deny
          allow from all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
      ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
      &lt;Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"&gt;
          AllowOverride None
          Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
          Order allow,deny
          Allow from all
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
      ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  
      # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
      # alert, emerg.
      LogLevel warn
  
      SSLEngine On
          SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/ssl/crt/public.crt
          SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/ssl/private/private.key
  
  
      CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
      ServerSignature On
  
      Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
      &lt;Directory "/usr/share/doc/"&gt;
          Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
          AllowOverride None
          Order deny,allow
          Deny from all
          Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
      &lt;/Directory&gt;
  
  &lt;/VirtualHost&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My /etc/apache2/httpd.conf is blank</p>
  
  <p>The directory /etc/apache2/conf.d has nothing in it but one file (charset)</p>
  
  <p>contents of /etc/apache2/conf.dcharset</p>
  
  <pre><code># Read the documentation before enabling AddDefaultCharset.
  # In general, it is only a good idea if you know that all your files
  # have this encoding. It will override any encoding given in the files
  # in meta http-equiv or xml encoding tags.
  
  #AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My apache error.log</p>
  
  <pre><code>[Wed Jun 03 00:12:31 2009] [error] [client 216.168.43.234] client sent HTTP/1.1 request without hostname (see RFC2616 section 14.23): /w00tw00t.at.ISC.SANS.DFind:)
  [Wed Jun 03 05:03:51 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:03:54 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:13:48 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:13:51 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:13:54 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:13:57 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:17:28 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 05:26:23 2009] [notice] caught SIGWINCH, shutting down gracefully
  [Wed Jun 03 05:26:34 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g configured -- resuming normal operations
  [Wed Jun 03 06:03:41 2009] [notice] caught SIGWINCH, shutting down gracefully
  [Wed Jun 03 06:03:51 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g configured -- resuming normal operations
  [Wed Jun 03 06:25:07 2009] [notice] caught SIGWINCH, shutting down gracefully
  [Wed Jun 03 06:25:17 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g configured -- resuming normal operations
  [Wed Jun 03 12:09:25 2009] [error] [client 61.139.105.163] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/fastenv
  [Wed Jun 03 15:04:42 2009] [notice] Graceful restart requested, doing restart
  [Wed Jun 03 15:04:43 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g configured -- resuming normal operations
  [Wed Jun 03 15:29:51 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 15:29:54 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 15:30:32 2009] [error] [client 99.247.237.46] File does not exist: /var/www/site/trunk/html/favicon.ico
  [Wed Jun 03 15:45:54 2009] [notice] caught SIGWINCH, shutting down gracefully
  [Wed Jun 03 15:46:05 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g configured -- resuming normal operations
  </code></pre>