Title: Category base of “/”
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Category base of “/”

 *  [chuyskywalker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chuyskywalker/)
 * (@chuyskywalker)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/)
 * I see that categories can be accessed like:
 * `site.com/CAT_NAME`
 * since the htaccess reads:
 * `RewriteRule ^(.+)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1 [QSA,L]`
 * However, if I try to set the permalink structure for `Category Base` to a value
   of “/”, it does not update my structure for the links that become generated in
   the “Posted in” list.
 * How can this be resolved, or was it left this way for a reason?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [TechGnome](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techgnome/)
 * (@techgnome)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-138643)
 * It’s this way so that WP knows it’s dealing with an actual category, rather than
   an actual directory on your site. Example, I have a downloads folder in my site’s
   root. If I were to also have a category called “Downloads” I need to be able 
   to distinguish between the downloads folder site_root/downloads and the the download
   category site_root/category/downloads
 * So, when you set it to “” or “/” it assumes the default setting of “category”
 * Tg
 *  Thread Starter [chuyskywalker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chuyskywalker/)
 * (@chuyskywalker)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-138669)
 * I figured as much. Will I have to hack this in to get it to work the way I want?
 * (Keeping an eye on category names vs. real folders is something I can handle)
 *  [hamish](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hamish/)
 * (@hamish)
 * [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-139059)
 * Hi there. Did you ever manage to get your base category set to “/”? I too can
   safely manage my root folders and would love to get this re-write working like
   you mention above.
 * Cheers!
 *  [Cyndy Otty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ceo/)
 * (@ceo)
 * [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-139060)
 * It’s not only real folders this structure can mess with. If you have pages – 
   and a category of the same name, you’ve basically given your blog a world of 
   brokenness. Just thought I’d mention that.
 *  [hamish](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hamish/)
 * (@hamish)
 * [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-139061)
 * Yes good point – but I still maintain that I have a good enough hold on my site
   architecture that this will not be a problem. 🙂

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Category base of “/”’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [hamish](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hamish/)
 * Last activity: [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-base-of/#post-139061)
 * Status: not resolved

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