Apache rewrite rule to change any "&" to "%26"

d1s4st3r · 02-25-2010, 04:04 AM

Hi,

I have a Perl script that handles e-mails and attachments.
When that script saves the attachments on disk, if a filename contains the "&" character then it is changed in "%26" (mainly because "&" is considered EVIL character...).

For example, if an attachment is named "You & me.pdf", it is stored on filesystem as "You %26 me.pdf".

Now, I have an Apache instance that lets users download that files from their browsers. Going on with the example, the user may want to download the file from the URL:

http://localhost/msg/You%20%26%20me.pdf

but the browser (or the web server?) translates "%20" into spaces and "%26" into ampersands, but the file cannot be served because on the filesystem there's no "&"s but only "%26".

Is there a way to set an Apache rewrite rule so that every "&" character in a request gets changed to "%26", no matter how many and/or where in the URL?

Thanks in advance for any kind suggestion.

:-D

chrism01 · 02-25-2010, 10:01 PM

It's going to be so much easier in the long run if you save the attachments to disk to not have spaces or & in the filename. Use 'and' instead of '&' and '_' instead of space.