From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A rewrite engine is a piece of computer software used to modify URLs, for a variety of purposes.
The Apache HTTP server has a rewrite engine called mod_rewrite, which has been described as "the Swiss Army knife of URL manipulation". There are also rewrite engines for other web servers such as Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS).
A detailed description of Apache's mod_rewrite is available on the Apache.org website.
Benefits derived from a rewrite engine are:
- rendering complex web site structures search-engine friendly;
- preventing undesired 'hot linking'
For Microsoft's IIS:
- IISRewrite from Qwerksoft
- ISAPI_Rewrite from isapirewrite.com
