URL it appears. People may be used to its behavior in the filesystem
where multiple adjacent slashes are frequently collapsed to a single
slash (<em>i.e.</em>, <code>/home///foo</code> is the same as
- <code>/home/foo</code>). In URL-space this is not necessarily true.
+ <code>/home/foo</code>). In URL-space this is not necessarily true if
+ directive <directive module="core">MergeSlashes</directive> has been set
+ to "OFF".
The <directive type="section" module="core">LocationMatch</directive>
directive and the regex version of <directive type="section"
>Location</directive> require you to explicitly specify multiple
- slashes if that is your intention.</p>
+ slashes if the slashes are not being merged.</p>
<p>For example, <code><LocationMatch "^/abc"></code> would match
the request URL <code>/abc</code> but not the request URL <code>
</LocationMatch>
</highlight>
- <note><title>Note about / (slash)</title>
+ <note><title>Note about / (slash)</title>
<p>The slash character has special meaning depending on where in a
URL it appears. People may be used to its behavior in the filesystem
where multiple adjacent slashes are frequently collapsed to a single
slash (<em>i.e.</em>, <code>/home///foo</code> is the same as
- <code>/home/foo</code>). In URL-space this is not necessarily true.
+ <code>/home/foo</code>). In URL-space this is not necessarily true if
+ directive <directive module="core">MergeSlashes</directive> has been set
+ to "OFF".
The <directive type="section" module="core">LocationMatch</directive>
directive and the regex version of <directive type="section"
>Location</directive> require you to explicitly specify multiple
- slashes if that is your intention.</p>
+ slashes if the slashes are not being merged.</p>
<p>For example, <code><LocationMatch "^/abc"></code> would match
the request URL <code>/abc</code> but not the request URL <code>
significant. However, URL's handled other ways, such as by CGI or proxy,
might prefer to retain the significance of multiple consecutive slashes.
In these cases <directive>MergeSlashes</directive> can be set to
- <em>OFF</em> to retain the multiple consecutive slashes. In these
- configurations, regular expressions used in the configuration file that match
+ <em>OFF</em> to retain the multiple consecutive slashes, which is the legacy behavior.</p>
+ <p>
+ When set to "OFF", regular expressions used in the configuration file that match
the path component of the URL (<directive>LocationMatch</directive>,
<directive>RewriteRule</directive>, ...) need to take into account multiple
- consecutive slashes.</p>
+ consecutive slashes. Non regular expression based <directive>Location</directive> always
+ operate against a URL with merged slashes and cannot differentiate between multiple slashes.</p>
</usage>
</directivesynopsis>