Redirect everything from a certain url

[EclipseLegal]

I have a new domain (www.newdomain.com) and and an old domain (www.olddomain.com).

Currently both domains are pointing (via dns nameserves) at the new site. I want to 301 everything that comes from the www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com.

I've used this htaccess code

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.newsite.com$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Which works fine and redirects if someone visits www.olddomain.com but I want it to cover everything from the old domain such as www.olddomain.com/archives/article1/ etc. So if any subpages etc are visited from the old domain its redirected to the new domain.

Could someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

[Naghirniac]

Hi James,

I made some research, and there is several solutions, some depends on your Apache version. Try the rule above to see if it solve your problem:

RedirectMatch permanent /.* http://www.newdomain.com/

If not, you should take a look at http://stackoverflow.com/ The website has a lot of discussion on this theme.

[EclipseLegal]

Ok, how would I fit that into the above htacess code?

Thanks

[Naghirniac]

You can use like this:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.newsite.com$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

RedirectMatch permanent /.* http://www.newdomain.com/

[EclipseLegal]

Thanks tired that but I just get a error saying

This webpage has a redirect loop

[Naghirniac]

Leave only the 
RedirectMatch permanent /.* http://www.newdomain.com/

take out the other part

[SkiBum]

Hi James, a question, do you want all the old pages simply to redirect to the new "home page" or do you have new versions of the old pages on your new domain?  While I lack the detailed programming knowledge of Naghirniac; it seems to me that you should have a think about whether you want visitors who land on the old site's blue widget's page (assuming there is any traffic or link juice flowing in) to be redirected to a new version of blue widgets page on the new domain; rather than just a blanket transfer to the home page?  If that's the case and you aren't talking thousands of pages then maybe redirects from each page would be worth thinking about?

Good luck anyhow!

[EclipseLegal]

Thanks, you are indeed right however in this case I need to redirect the old domain and all of its pages to the home page of the new.

I just need to know how to say if anything from www.olddomain.com INCLUDING sub pages and folders hits my site then redirect it to www.newsite.com. Both domain names are pointing at the same hosting.

Can anyone help?

[EclipseLegal]

So which part shouldI remove - the RewriteCond or/and RewriteRule?

Thanks

[evolvingSEO]

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to send individual pages to the corresponding new ones on the new site.

But a really crude way to just point an entire old domain at a new one is to use "domain forwarding" - you'll set this up with whoever you manage the domain name with.

Explanation from GoDaddy