


What is the difference between ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse?
Jul 16, 2025 am 12:26 AMProxyPass is used to forward client requests to the backend server, and ProxyPassReverse is used to rewrite the URL in the backend response to ensure it points to the proxy. 1. ProxyPass is responsible for handling request mapping from the client to the backend, such as forwarding the "/app" path request to "http://backend.example.com"; 2. ProxyPassReverse is responsible for handling the response returned from the backend. If the backend returns a redirect or absolute URL, it rewritten it as a URL accessed through the proxy to avoid users from directly accessing the backend. Usually both need to be used at the same time, otherwise it may cause link failure or redirect errors, especially when processing HTML content.
When you're setting up a reverse proxy with Apache, two directives often come up together: ProxyPass
and ProxyPassReverse
. Understanding the difference between them is key to making your proxy setup work smoothly — especially when it comes to handling redirects and ensuring URLs behave correctly.
What ProxyPass
Does
ProxyPass
is used to map remote content to a local server path. In simple terms, it tells Apache: "when someone requests this URL path, forward the request to this backend server."
For example:
ProxyPass "/app" "http://backend.example.com"
This means that a request to http://yourserver/app
will be sent to http://backend.example.com/app
.
It handles the outgoing request from Apache to the backend server. The backend doesn't need to know it's being proxied — it just receives the request as if it came directly.
Common use cases include:
- Sending
/api
requests to a Node.js backend - Proxying
/blog
to a WordPress site hosted elsewhere
You can also add options like retry
, timeout
, or keepalive
for better control over how Apache communicates with the backend.
Why You Also Need ProxyPassReverse
Now here's where things get important: sometimes the backend server sends back a redirect (like a 302 response) or include absolute URLs in its HTML or headers. Those URLs might point directly to the backend's own address — which users can't access directly.
That's where ProxyPassReverse
comes in. It rewrites those URLs so they go through the proxy again, not directly to the backend.
Example:
ProxyPassReverse "/app" "http://backend.example.com"
With this line, if the backend responds with a redirect to http://backend.example.com/new-path
, Apache changes it to http://yourserver/app/new-path
.
Without ProxyPassReverse
, users would end up trying to access the backend directly — which either won't work or could expose internal infrastructure.
So in short:
-
ProxyPass
handles outgoing requests from client → backend -
ProxyPassReverse
adjusts responses from backend → client to keep URLs pointing to your proxy
When You Can Skip ProxyPassReverse
There are some situations where ProxyPassReverse
isn't strictly necessary:
- If your backend doesn't return any redirects or absolute URLs
- If the backend is configured to generate URLs using the proxy's hostname instead of its own
- If you're only proxying an API that returns relative paths or host-agnostic JSON
But in most real-world settings — especially serving HTML — skipping ProxyPassReverse
leads to broken links or unreachable redirects.
A typical minimum config block looks like this:
ProxyPass "/myapp" "http://127.0.0.1:8080/myapp" ProxyPassReverse "/myapp" "http://127.0.0.1:8080/myapp"
And if you're using SSL on the frontend (which you should), don't forget to enable SSLProxyEngine on
and possibly set ProxyPreserveHost On
depending on how your backend handles Host headers.
Wrapping Up
In most cases, you'll use both ProxyPass
and ProxyPassReverse
together. One handles the request going out, the other makes sure the response comes back through the right door. Without both, things tend to break in subtle but annoying ways.
If you're just starting out, stick to matching paths and make sure both lines are there. Once you understand how the proxy chain works, you can tweak things like path rewriting or header manipulation for more advanced settings.
Basically that's it.
The above is the detailed content of What is the difference between ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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