.htaccess mod_rewrite remove .php extension, but preserve URL path

Question

I currently have PHP scripts that work properly, being called like this:

• www.example.com/user.php/paul
• www.example.com/tag.php/food

I'm having trouble getting .htaccess to rewrite properly. I'm trying to achieve this:

• www.example.com/user/paul
• www.example.com/tag/food

So far, I can get it to redirect /user to /user.php, but the /paul is lost; breaking my script.

My current .htaccess looks like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /([^.\ ]+\.)+php(\?[^\ ]*)?\ HTTP
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+/)*index/?$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond $1 !^([^.]+\.)+([a-z0-9]+)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1.php [L]

Please help. Thanks! Paul

Answer 1

RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Should look like:

RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php/(.+)$ http://www.example.com/$1/$2 [R=301,L]

The items in parenthesis can be referenced in the target as $N for each regex in parenthesis you have.