I have seen several questions on this with varying responses. I’m using a WordPress website and want to force a trailing slash. From various sources I have found these two options:

Option 1

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1/ [L,R=301]

Option 2

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !.(gif|jpg|png|jpeg|css|js)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1/ [L,R=301]

Can someone comment on the functional difference (which one should I use)? I’m not clear if the 2nd and 4th conditions Option 2 add are necessary (if it’s not a file, it wouldn’t be a gif/jpg/png/etc right? and if it doesn’t have a trailing slash, won’t it always be true it’s not a directory?).

I’m also trying to figure out where in my htaccess I should put it. I currently have the following in my htaccess in this order

  • http:https redirect
  • caching stuff (via wp-rocket plugin)
  • deny access to wp-config
  • whitelist IPs that can access wp-login
  • AMP redirects (removes /amp and /amp/)
  • maybe add the trailing slash ruleset here?
  • post slug redirects (duplicate posts, slug changes)
  • old URL format redirects (remove date in URL)
  • default WordPress rule (permalink thing)
  • disable directory browsing

Thanks everyone for your help and expertise!

Read more here: Options to Force Trailing Slash in htaccess


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