301 Redirect Root and Only Root ("/") from https to http

Question

I have found several Q/As on how to redirect root only, how to redirect from https to http (using .htaccess). But there was no question that merged both. And this answer is too dirty: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17952418/force-web-root-to-use-http. So I came up with an answer like the following:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} provectium\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Is this valid? I want it so that any query to https://provectium.com/file.html will be redirected to http://provectium.com/file.html, but not the subfolders (they should remain https://provectium.com/directory/). Thank you.

P.S. I read somewhere that the second line could be RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^provectium\.com [NC], what's the role of the extra ^?

Answer 1

This should work for / (root) and all pages under / but not any subfolders.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} provectium\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)?$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

If you put ^ in the second line, the rule will match only if the host is exactly provectium.com and won't match www.provectium.com.