I have a lighttpd server running which has an SSL certificate installed. I would, due to certain reasons, like to forward all https: //www. requests to http: //www. My lighttpd code looks like as follows: $SERVER["socket"] == ":443" { ssl.engine = "enable" ssl.pemfile = "/path/to/pem/file" ssl.ca-file = "/path/to/ca/file" HTTP["host"] =~ "^www\.(.*)$" { url.redirect = ("^/(.*)" => "http://www.%1$1") } } Can you please point out the problem here. Another thing, what is the difference between %1 and $1 ?