Is $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_SCHEME’] reliable?

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The REQUEST_SCHEME environment variable is documented on the Apache mod_rewrite page. However, it didn’t become available until Apache 2.4.

I only have Apache 2.2 so I created an environment variable. I added the following to the top of my .htaccess file.

RewriteEngine on

# Set REQUEST_SCHEME (standard environment variable in Apache 2.4)
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule .* - [E=REQUEST_SCHEME:http]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule .* - [E=REQUEST_SCHEME:https]

Now I can use

  • %{ENV:REQUEST_SCHEME} in other rewrite conditions and rules
  • $_SERVER['REQUEST_SCHEME'] in my PHP code

I don’t have to do extra messy conditional checks everywhere, and my PHP code is forward compatible. When Apache is upgraded, I can change my .htaccess file.

I don’t know how you’d apply this to a Windows environment. This is probably not a good solution for distributed code, but it works well for my needs.

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