I've got a site where I want to allow the user to go to either http://www.foo.com/ or https://www.foo.com/ and be bounced to https:://www.foo.com/cgi-bin/login.cgi. Initially, I was doing this using index.html files that looked something like: 
<html>
  <head>
    <title>www.foo.com Redirect</title>
    <meta
      http-equiv='refresh'
      content='1;URL=/cgi-bin/login.cgi'
    >
  </head>
</html>

[download]

I just read merlyn's column on using 404 as a cache builder. So, I tried out using 403 (cause I have indexing off) and it worked. But, I am uneasy at the fact I seem to be hacking out a solution.

Also, without hard-coding the servername, I don't see a way of getting from within the *:80 virtualhost to the *:443 virtualhost. I mean, using 

  ErrorDocument 403 https://www.foo.com/cgi-bin/login.cgi

[download]
would work, but doesn't it defeat the point of named virtual-hosting? (Or, am I blathering?)

Another concern I have is that does this introduce any issues? I don't mind having every Forbidden query bounce to my login screen for both the :80 and :443 ports. Is there anything else?

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

In reply to Using 403 as a redirect by dragonchild

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