Creating an .htaccess file on your DreamHost web server
View the following article for instructions on how to create an .htaccess file on your web server:
If the file already exists, view the following articles for instructions on how to update it (depending on if you're using an FTP client or SSH):
What to change in the examples below?
The examples below can be entered into your .htaccess file exactly as shown.
Only if the example contains a URL in bold should you change that to your actual URL. For example, if you see the domain example.com, change this to your own domain name.
Changing the file extension
This example allows you to use a .zig extension in addition to the regular .php extension. So, you could access a file at example.zig as well as example.php:
Options +FollowSymlinks RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^(.+)\.zig$ /$1.php [NC,L]
Forcing other file extensions to load as PHP
View the following article which gives several examples on how to force any file extension to load as a .php file.
Removing the file extension
This example completely removes the file extension from your URL. So, example.php would appear as example. The following example is for .php files, but for any other type, just replace .php with your desired type and add those lines and extensions in the same way:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /.*index\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.*)index$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /(.+)\.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^([a-z]+)$ /$1.php [L]
Allowing a file to load without the extension
This example does not automatically remove the file extension. However, it does allow the file to be loaded without the extension. So, if example.com/test.php exists, you can then load it as example.com/test:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /$1.php [L,QSA]