There are a number of ways to configure redirects in the site.
Within docs.github.com, you can redirect from one file to another or from one version to another.
Sometimes we change the name of an article but want its old URL to redirect to its new URL. For these types of redirects, we use redirect_from frontmatter. See /content#redirect_from for details.
If a URL for a docs page is entered without a version segment (e.g., https://docs.github.com/foo instead of https://docs.github.com/<version>/foo), the site will automatically redirect it to the first available version of the page. The order of precedence is specified in lib/all-versions.js, where the current order is:
- Free, Pro, & Team (
fpt) - Enterprise Cloud (
ghec) - Enterprise Server (
ghes) - GitHub AE (
ghae)
So if a page foo.md is only available in Cloud and Server, the link https://docs.github.com/foo will automatically redirect to https://docs.github.com/enterprise-cloud@latest/foo because Cloud has precedence over Server.
If foo.md is available in Free, Pro, & Team, no redirect will occur because fpt pages do not have a version segment, so the fpt content at https://docs.github.com/foo will render.
If you want the URL for one version of an article to redirect to a URL for another version, you must use /lib/redirects/static/redirect-exceptions.txt instead. For example, if you remove the Free, Pro, & Team (fpt) version of an article, the URL will automatically redirect to the next available version of the page. If you want it to redirect to a version that is lower in the order of precedence, or to a different page entirely, you must specify an exception.
Another example: we removed the ghes version of "Exporting member information for your organization," but we don't want URLs that include the enterprise-server@<release> version segment to 404. In order to redirect ghes URLs to another version (such as ghec), we need to add an exception.
Each entry in the exceptions file should start with the path you want to redirect to, including the version, followed by an unordered list of the paths you want to redirect from:
/enterprise-cloud@latest/organizations/managing-membership-in-your-organization/exporting-member-information-for-your-organization
- /[email protected]/organizations/managing-membership-in-your-organization/exporting-member-information-for-your-organization
- /[email protected]/organizations/managing-membership-in-your-organization/exporting-member-information-for-your-organization
- /[email protected]/organizations/managing-membership-in-your-organization/exporting-member-information-for-your-organization
Sometimes the canonical home of some content moves outside the help site. For these types of redirects, we add entries to /lib/redirects/external-sites.json.
We also have custom routing code that automatically creates redirects under the hood for things like moved Admin guide pages. This code lives in /lib/redirects/get-old-paths-from-permalink.js. All redirects for the site are compiled when the server starts by /lib/redirects/precompile.js.
See Links and image paths for info on how links and images are rewritten on the fly at page render time.
See Troubleshooting for info on viewing the redirects for any page.