Wildcard matching

You can use the asterisk (*) in any URL segment to match certain patterns. For example, example.com/t*st would match:

• example.com/test
• example.com/toast
• example.com/trust

example.com/foo/* does not match example.com/foo, but example.com/foo* does match.

Caution

Consider alternative Rules options due to their enhanced configurability. Refer to the migration guide for details.

For more flexibility and customization, consider using Snippets.

Helpful tips

• To match both http and https, write example.com. Writing *example.com is unnecessary.
• To match every page on a domain, write example.com/*. Writing example.com will not work.
• To match every page on a domain and its subdomains, write *example.com/*. Writing example.com will not work.
• A wildcard (*) in a page rule URL will match even if no characters are present and may include any part of the URL, including the query string.

Reference wildcard matches

You can reference a matched wildcard later using the $<X> syntax, where <X> indicates the index of a glob pattern. For example, $1 represents the first wildcard match and $2 represents the second wildcard match.

The $<X> syntax is especially useful with the Forwarding URL setting. For example, you could forward http://*.example.com/* to http://example.com/images/$1/$2.jpg.

This rule would match http://cloud.example.com/flare.jpg, which would be forwarded to http://example.com/images/cloud/flare.jpg.

To add a $ character in the forwarding URL, escape it by adding a backslash \ in front like \$.

Warning

Avoid creating a redirect where the domain points to itself as the destination. A domain that points to itself can cause an infinite redirect error, which makes your site inaccessible to visitors.