I have solved the issue using 2 answers:

1. Renaming the server.php to index.php (no modifications)


2. Copy the .htaccess from public folder to root folder
   (like rimon.ekjon said below)


3. 
   

   Changing .htaccess it a bit as follows for statics:

   
   
   

   RewriteEngine On
   
   
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   
   RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
   
   
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.css|.js|.png|.jpg|.gif|robots.txt)$ [NC]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   
   RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
   
   
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
   
   RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
   
   

   
   
   

   If there are any other static files needed just add the extension to the previous declared list

   
   

In Laravel 5.5 create .htacess file in your root directory and placed the following code:- Reference Link

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

        Options -MultiViews

    </IfModule>



    RewriteEngine On



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f

    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.w+$) [NC]

    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteRule ^ server.php



</IfModule>

Easy way to remove public from laravel 5 url.
You just need to cut index.php and .htaccess from public directory and paste it in the root directory,thats all
and replace two lines in index.php as

require __DIR__.'/bootstrap/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/bootstrap/app.php';

@rimon.ekjon said:

Rename the server.php in the your Laravel root folder to index.php and copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder. -- Thats it !! :)

That's working for me.
But all resource files in /public directory couldn't find and request urls didn't work, because I used asset() helper.

I changed /Illuminate/Foundation/helpers.php/asset() function as follows:

function asset($path, $secure = null)

{

    return app('url')->asset("public/".$path, $secure);

}

Now everything works :)

Thank you @rimon.ekjon and all of you.

1) I haven't found a working method for moving the public directory in L5. While you can modify some things in the bootstrap index.php, it appears several helper functions are based on the assumption of that public directory being there. In all honestly you really shouldn't be moving the public directory.

2) If your using MAMP then you should be creating new vhosts for each project, each serving that projects public directory. Once created you access each project by your defined server name like this :

http://project1.dev

http://project2.dev

Just create .htaccess file at root and add these lines to it

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    RewriteEngine On



    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

</IfModule>

That's it!

The above code works on the root public_html folder. Having said that your core laravel file should be inside the public_html folder, if your directory looks like public_html/laravelapp/public and if you put the above code inside laravelapp it won't work. Therefore you must copy all your core files into public_html and put the .htaccess file there .

If you want to keep the code in a subdirectory then you can create a subdomain then this code will work for that also.

Even if the solution(s) mentioned in this thread works for you guys, I would request you not to do this. Here is the reason why.

You should be pointing your Apache host root to the $LARAVEL_PATH/public directory instead of $LARAVEL_PATH.

The point of having sub directory for www host root instead of project root is that you're not leaking any of your project files through your web server.

Even though all the PHP files have the file suffix .php, malicious user can access your $LARAVEL_PATH/storagedirectory and its subdirectory contents, read your composer.json or package.json to find vulnerable dependencies or read .env file etc.

If you're running on shared hosting and you have mandatory public_html, try installing Laravel outside of that public_html directory and either removing public_html (if empty) and replace it with symlink to $LARAVEL_PATH/public OR if you want the Laravel instance to be subdirectory of public_html, do the same but create symlink from $LARAVEL_PATH/public to public_html/$PROJECT_SUBDIR.

That public directory is there for reason to make project a bit more secure. Solve the actual problem and don't try to break this simple but nice security addition. :)

It's possible to remove public url in laravel5. Follow these steps:

step 1.copy all file from public and paste on root directory

step 2.open index.php file
replace with

 require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';

to

 require __DIR__.'/bootstrap/autoload.php';

and

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

to

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/bootstrap/app.php';

And remove all cache and cookies.

Let's say you placed all the other files and directories in a folder named 'locale'.

Just go to index.php and find these two lines:

require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';



$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

and change them to this:

require __DIR__.'/locale/bootstrap/autoload.php';



$app = require_once __DIR__.'/locale/bootstrap/app.php';

BEST Approach:
I will not recommend removing public, instead on local computer create a virtual host point to public directory and on remote hosting change public to public_html and point your domain to this directory. Reason, your whole laravel code will be secure because its one level down to your public directory :)

METHOD 1:

I just rename server.php to index.php and it works

METHOD 2:

This work well for all laravel version...

Here is my Directory Structure,

/laravel/

... app

... bootstrap

... public

... etc

Follow these easy steps

1. move all files from public directory to root /laravel/
   


2. now, no need of public directory, so optionally you can remove it now


3. now open index.php and make following replacements

require DIR.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';

to

require DIR.'/bootstrap/autoload.php';

and

$app = require_once DIR.'/../bootstrap/start.php';

to

$app = require_once DIR.'/bootstrap/start.php';

4. now open bootstrap/paths.php and change public directory path:

'public' => DIR.'/../public',

to

'public' => DIR.'/..',

and that's it, now try http:// localhost/laravel/

I would like to add to @Humble Learner and note that the proper location to "fix" the url path for assets is /Illuminate/Routing/UrlGenerator.php/asset().

Update the method to match:

public function asset($path, $secure = null)

{

    if ($this->isValidUrl($path)) return $path;

    $root = $this->getRootUrl($this->getScheme($secure));

    return $this->removeIndex($root).'/public/'.trim($path, '/');

}

This will fix scripts, styles and image paths. Anything for asset paths.

There is always a reason to have a public folder in the Laravel setup, all public related stuffs should be present inside the public folder,

Don't Point your ip address/domain to the Laravel's root folder but point it to the public folder. It is unsafe pointing the server Ip to the root folder., because unless you write restrictions in .htaccess, one can easily access the other files.,

Just write rewrite condition in the .htaccess file and install rewrite module and enable the rewrite module, the problem which adds public in the route will get solved.

For XAMPP user to remove public from url without touching laravel default filesystem is to set a Virtual Host for your application to do this jsut follow these steps

1. Open the XAMPP control panel application and stop Apache. Be aware that late Windows machines might run it as a service, so check the box to the left of the Apache module.




2. Navigate to C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra or wherever your XAMPP files are located.




3. Open the file named httpd-vhosts.conf with a text editor.




4. Around line 19 find # NameVirtualHost *:80 and uncomment or remove the hash.




5. At the very bottom of the file paste the following code:

<VirtualHost *>

    ServerAdmin admin@localhost.com

    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs" # change this line with your htdocs folder

    ServerName localhost

    ServerAlias localhost

    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">

        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI

        Order allow,deny

        Allow from all

    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

6. Now you can copy and paste the code above below to add your Virtual Host directories. For example I’m working on a site called Eatery Engine so the following snippet will allow me to work with sub-domains on my local install:

<VirtualHost eateryengine.dev>

    ServerAdmin admin@localhost.com

    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/eateryengine" # change this line with your htdocs folder

    ServerName eateryengine.dev

    ServerAlias eateryengine.dev

    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/eateryengine">

        Order allow,deny

        Allow from all

    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

7. Next head over to your Windows host file to edit your HOSTS. the file will be located at C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts, where hosts is the file. Open it with notepad.


8. Look for #localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

127.0.0.1 localhost

localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

127.0.0.1       localhost

127.0.0.1       eateryengine.dev #change to match your Virtual Host.

127.0.0.1       demo.eateryengine.dev #manually add new sub-domains.

9. Restart Apache and test everything.

The original article can be found here

Here is the Best and shortest solution that works for me as of may, 2018
for Laravel 5.5

1- just cut your .htaccess file from the /public directory to the root directory and replace it content with the following code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

        Options -MultiViews

    </IfModule>



    RewriteEngine On



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.css|.js|.png|.jpg|.gif|robots.txt)$ [NC]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteRule ^ server.php [L]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/

RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]



</IfModule>

2- Just save the .htaccess file and that is all.

3- Rename your server.php file to index.php. that is all enjoy!

Firstly you can use this steps

For Laravel 5:

1. Rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php

2. Copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder.

source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28735930

after you follow these steps then you need to change all css and script path, but this will be tiring.

Solution Proposal :simply you can make minor change the helpers::asset function.

For this:

3. open vendorlaravelframeworksrcIlluminateFoundationhelpers.php




4. goto line 130



5. 
   

   write "public/".$path instead of $path,

   
   
   

   function asset($path, $secure = null){
   
      return app('url')->asset("public/".$path, $secure);
   
   }
   
   

   
   

Don't:

You really should not rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php
and copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder!

This way everyone can access some of your files (.env for example). You don't want that!

Do:

Instead, you should create a .htaccess file in your root like this:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1 [L,QSA]

That's it.

Another method that I use is to create a symbolic link (in Linux, don't know about Win) using the ln command in htdocs or www i.e. ln projectname/public project
The site is thus accessible via localhost/project

I have read some article before and it's working fine but really don't know is safe or not

    a. Create new folder local.

    b. Move all project into the local folder expect public folder.

    c. Move all the content of public folder to project root.

    d. Delete the blank public folder

    f. Edit the index file. 

Edit the index.php

require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

to

require __DIR__.'/local/bootstrap/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/local/bootstrap/app.php';

Even if i do not recommend putting Laravel on the root folder there are some cases when it could not be avoided;
for those cases the above methods do not work for assets so i made a quick fix changing the htaccess:
after copying server.php to index.php edit the .htaccess file like so:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

        Options -MultiViews

    </IfModule>



    RewriteEngine On



    ### fix file rewrites on root path ###

    #select file url

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)$

    #if file exists in /public/<filename>

    RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/public/$1 -f

    #redirect to /public/<filename>

    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

    ###############



    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]



    # Handle Front Controller...



    #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d # comment this rules or the user will read non-public file and folders!

    #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f #

    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

</IfModule>

This was a quick fix i had to make so anyone is welcome to upgrade it.

Laravel 5.5

After having installed Laravel for the first time, I faced the renowned "public folder problem" and I came up with this solution that, in my personal opinion, is "cleaner" then the others I found on the Web.

Achievements

• Don't have public word in the URI


• Protect the .env file against curious people

Everything can be done just editing the .htaccess using mod_rewrite and four simple rules.

Steps

1. Move the .htaccess file in public/.htaccess in the main root


2. Edit it as below

I commented everything, so it should be clear (I hope) also to those who have never used mod_rewrite (not that I'm an expert, all the opposite). Also, to understand the rules, it must be clear that, in Laravel, if Bill connects to https://example.com, https://example.com/index.php is loaded. This file just contains the command header("refresh: 5; https://example.com/public/"), which sends the request to https://example.com/public/index.php. This second index.php is responsible to load the controller and other stuff.

# IfModule prevents the server error if the app is moved in an environment which doesn’t support mod_rewrite

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

        Options -MultiViews

    </IfModule>



    RewriteEngine On



    # RULES ORIGINALLY IN public/.htaccess ---

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$

    RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]



    # Handle Front Controller...

#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

#    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]



    # Handle Authorization Header

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .

    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

    # --- END



    # PERSONAL RULES ---

    # All the requests on port 80 are redirected on HTTPS

    RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$

    RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]



    # When .env file is requested, server redirects to 404

    RewriteRule ^.env$ - [R=404,L,NC]



    # If the REQUEST_URI is empty (means: http://example.com), it loads /public/index.php

    # N.B.: REQUEST_URI is *never* actually empty, it contains a slash that must be set as match as below

    # .* means: anything can go here at least 0 times (= accepts any sequence of characters, including an empty string)

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$

    RewriteRule ^(.*) /public/index.php [L]



    # If the current request is asking for a REQUEST_FILENAME that:

    # a) !== existent directory

    # b) !== existent file

    # => if URI !== css||js||images/whatever => server loads /public/index.php, which is responsible to load the app and the related controller

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteRule !^(css|js|images|media)/(.*)$ /public/index.php [L,NC]



    # If the current request is asking for a REQUEST_FILENAME that:

    # a) !== existent directory

    # b) !== existent file

    # => if URI == css||js||images[=$1]/whatever[=$2] => server loads the resource at public/$1/$2

    # If R flag is added, the server not only loads the resource at public/$1/$2 but redirects to it

    # e.g.: bamboo.jpg resides in example.com/public/media/bamboo.jpg

    #       Client asks for example.com/media/bamboo.jpg

    #       Without R flag: the URI remains example.com/media/bamboo.jpg and loads the image

    #       With R flag: the server redirects the client to example.com/public/media/bamboo.jpg and loads the image

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteRule ^(css|js|images|media)/(.*)$ /public/$1/$2 [L,NC]

    # --- END



</IfModule>

The following rule (originally in public/.htaccess) can be deleted. The same rule, in fact, is explicited in a more detailed way in the last two rules.

# Handle Front Controller...

#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

#    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

EDIT: I missed Abhinav Saraswat's solution and his answer should be the accepted one. Just one, simple and clear rule that redirects all the traffic to the public folder without modifying any file.

 You can follow only 2 step





 1- cut .htaccess from public folder and paste to root(mainFolder)  

 2- Rename server.php file to index.php AT your root dir. (mainFolder) 

step 1:
server.php file in root directory rename as index.php

step 2:

copy .htaccess file from public directory to root direct

You can remove public keyword from url using various methods.

1) If you are using dedicated hosting and you have root access then You can remove public keyword from url using Virtual Host. You should give DocumentRoot path with public. So this will start index from public directory and remove it from url.

<VirtualHost *:80>

    ServerAdmin info@example.com

    ServerName example.com

    ServerAlias www.example.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/{yoursourcedirectory}/public



    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

2) If you dont have root access of your hosting then you should genarate a new .htaccess file in your root directory and put the code as below

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

    Options -MultiViews

</IfModule>



RewriteEngine On



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f

RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.w+$) [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteRule ^ server.php

</IfModule>

You can get more reference here.

I found the most working solution for this problem. Just edit your .htaccess in root folder and write the following code. Nothing else required

  RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^public

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]



<IfModule php7_module>

   php_flag display_errors Off

   php_value max_execution_time 30

   php_value max_input_time 60

   php_value max_input_vars 1000

   php_value memory_limit -1

   php_value post_max_size 8M

   php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 1440

   php_value session.save_path "/var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php71"

   php_value upload_max_filesize 2M

   php_flag zlib.output_compression Off

</IfModule>

##Create .htaccess file in root directory and place code something like below.



<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>

        Options -MultiViews

    </IfModule>



    RewriteEngine On



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f

    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.w+$) [NC]

    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 



    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteRule ^ server.php



</IfModule>