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Server configuration

Apache​

What your .htaccess file for YOURLS should look like.

Make a .htaccess file​

If the .htaccess file automated creation/updating failed because of file permission, you'll have to manually make one. No worry, it's simple.

Note

YOURLS cannot share its root directory with another .htaccess rewrite rules driven app such as WordPress. The .htaccess file should contain YOURLS directives and no other rewrite rule.

YOURLS installed on root​

If YOURLS root URL is https://yoursite.com/ or https://subdomain.yoursite.com/, the .htaccess file in the root directory must be like:

# BEGIN YOURLS
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /yourls-loader.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END YOURLS

YOURLS installed in subdirectory​

If YOURLS root URL is https://yoursite.com/somedir/, the .htaccess file in this subdirectory must be like:

# BEGIN YOURLS
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /somedir/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /somedir/yourls-loader.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END YOURLS

Redirect everything from HTTP to HTTPS​

Add RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off and RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] before the RewriteBase / rule in your Apache configuration. (Full example here)

Give YOURLS its own directory​

By default YOURLS installs its files in the directory it will run from.

This section explains how to have YOURLS running from http://sho.rt/ but with all files installed in their own directory, say http://sho.rt/yourls/, and still have YOURLS served from the parent directory and without changing your URLs.

  1. Move files Simply create a directory, eg yourls_subdir/ and move everything in this directory.

  2. .htaccess In the now empty directory, create a .htaccess file with the following (replace sho.rt and yourls_subdir with your hostname and directory name).

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} sho.rt$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/yourls_subdir/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /yourls_subdir/$1
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} sho.rt$
RewriteRule ^(/)?$ yourls_subdir/yourls-loader.php [L]
</IfModule>
Note

This doesn't change the fact that YOURLS needs its own .htaccess in the directory.

Bonus tricks​

The following line will prevent access to any "dot file" or "dot directory", except for .well-known/ which is rightfully used in various cases:

RewriteRule "(^|/)\.(?!well-known\/)" - [F]

Other resources​

Nginx​

What your yourls.conf file for YOURLS should look like.

The server configuration can differ from one install to another, depending on your needs (and if you elect to run nginx you're supposed to be able to adapt the configuration based on these needs).

The basic Nginx server configuration​

server {

  # HTTP over IPv4 & IPv6
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;

  # HTTPS over IPv4 & IPv6
  # MUST BE EDITED TO REFLECT YOUR CONFIGURATION
  listen 443 ssl;
  listen [::]:443 ssl;
  ssl_certificate     example.com.crt;
  ssl_certificate_key example.com.key;

  # Server names
  # MUST BE EDITED TO REFLECT YOUR CONFIGURATION
  server_name example.com www.example.com;

  # Root directory
  # MUST BE EDITED TO REFLECT YOUR CONFIGURATION
  root /path/to/yourls/files;

  # Rewrites
  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /yourls-loader.php$is_args$args;
    # if YOURLS is installed in a subdirectory, change the path
    # to yourls-loader.php accordingly, eg
    # try_files $uri $uri/ /subdir/yourls-loader.php$is_args$args;
  }

  # PHP engine
  location ~ \.php$ {
    include fastcgi.conf;
    # OR
    # include fastcgi_params;

    fastcgi_index index.php;

    # MUST BE EDITED TO REFLECT YOUR CONFIGURATION
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
  }

}
Note

By design, this configuration will throw an error 403 "forbidden" on your bare YOURLS server_name domain: it will not answer with an index file on the bare domain, nor on any sub-directory (such as /admin), unless you manually specify /admin/index.php (example: https://your.yourlsdomain.tld/admin/index.php). (source)

Other resources​

You may look at H5BP Server Configs for tricks and tips regarding your Nginx global file configuration. This may suit your needs or improve your overall experience.