redirecting dead links with htaccess

[Theremin]

How long should I leave redirects in my htaccess file? do they have to remain there indefinately? will i end up with a HUGE htaccess file as over time I take down old outdated material?

Thanks

Jason

[KDLA]

Normally, you update the page's content within the page, not recreate another version and link to it. That way, you won't mess up search engine indexing and keep the engines pointing to one page consistently.

But to your question, I suggest six months retention.

KDLA

[Theremin]

Thanks KDLA.

problem is I setup a new forum in place of the old one and didn't want to take down the old one until I was sure the new one was running fine. That meant a different directory for the new one. So everything that used to goto domain.com/phpbb2/*.php now goes to domain.com/phpbb3/*.php

Is there a good way to redirect an entire directory?

[ray326]

You could rename (or delete) phpbb2 and replace it with a soft link of the same name to point to phpbb3.

[Theremin]

spent better part of the day fixing the 404s in my webmaster log :P. hopefully I am good to go. What a pain in the ass :P. I will likely do as you suggest next time ray. Maybe just post a temp page on my forums rename the old forums to phpBB3.old and install the newer one in its place. once it is working just make the links to my forums live again.

though they dont come out with new forums but every 2-3 years, I still dont want to have to do it again if I dont have to

Thanks,
Jason