Ignore Symfony routing, serve a folder instead - apache

Question

I have a Symfony 4 project, it is nothing special but inside public/blog I have a Wordpress project and I would like to serve that folder instead of being processed by Symfony's routing system when I go to "mydomain/blog".
I have this in my .htaccess it is the default config generated by symfony (I think)
# Use the front controller as index file. It serves as a fallback solution when
# every other rewrite/redirect fails (e.g. in an aliased environment without
# mod_rewrite). Additionally, this reduces the matching process for the
# start page (path "/") because otherwise Apache will apply the rewriting rules
# to each configured DirectoryIndex file (e.g. index.php, index.html, index.pl).
DirectoryIndex index.php
# By default, Apache does not evaluate symbolic links if you did not enable this
# feature in your server configuration. Uncomment the following line if you
# install assets as symlinks or if you experience problems related to symlinks
# when compiling LESS/Sass/CoffeScript assets.
# Options FollowSymlinks
# Disabling MultiViews prevents unwanted negotiation, e.g. "/index" should not resolve
# to the front controller "/index.php" but be rewritten to "/index.php/index".
<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# Determine the RewriteBase automatically and set it as environment variable.
# If you are using Apache aliases to do mass virtual hosting or installed the
# project in a subdirectory, the base path will be prepended to allow proper
# resolution of the index.php file and to redirect to the correct URI. It will
# work in environments without path prefix as well, providing a safe, one-size
# fits all solution. But as you do not need it in this case, you can comment
# the following 2 lines to eliminate the overhead.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}::$0 ^(/.+)/(.*)::\2$
RewriteRule .* - [E=BASE:%1]
# Sets the HTTP_AUTHORIZATION header removed by Apache
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .+
RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%0]
# Redirect to URI without front controller to prevent duplicate content
# (with and without `/index.php`). Only do this redirect on the initial
# rewrite by Apache and not on subsequent cycles. Otherwise we would get an
# endless redirect loop (request -> rewrite to front controller ->
# redirect -> request -> ...).
# So in case you get a "too many redirects" error or you always get redirected
# to the start page because your Apache does not expose the REDIRECT_STATUS
# environment variable, you have 2 choices:
# - disable this feature by commenting the following 2 lines or
# - use Apache >= 2.3.9 and replace all L flags by END flags and remove the
# following RewriteCond (best solution)
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} =""
RewriteRule ^index\.php(?:/(.*)|$) %{ENV:BASE}/$1 [R=301,L]
# If the requested filename exists, simply serve it.
# We only want to let Apache serve files and not directories.
# Rewrite all other queries to the front controller.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ %{ENV:BASE}/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
# When mod_rewrite is not available, we instruct a temporary redirect of
# the start page to the front controller explicitly so that the website
# and the generated links can still be used.
RedirectMatch 307 ^/$ /index.php/
# RedirectTemp cannot be used instead
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
# BEGIN cPanel-generated php ini directives, do not edit
# Manual editing of this file may result in unexpected behavior.
# To make changes to this file, use the cPanel MultiPHP INI Editor (Home >> Software >> MultiPHP INI Editor)
# For more information, read our documentation (https://go.cpanel.net/EA4ModifyINI)
<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 128M
php_value post_max_size 15M
php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 1440
php_value session.save_path "/var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php73"
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
php_flag zlib.output_compression Off
</IfModule>
<IfModule lsapi_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 128M
php_value post_max_size 15M
php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 1440
php_value session.save_path "/var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php73"
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
php_flag zlib.output_compression Off
</IfModule>
# END cPanel-generated php ini directives, do not edit
# php -- BEGIN cPanel-generated handler, do not edit
# Set the “ea-php73” package as the default “PHP” programming language.
<IfModule mime_module>
AddHandler application/x-httpd-ea-php73 .php .php7 .phtml
</IfModule>
# php -- END cPanel-generated handler, do not edit
I don't undestard how to properly configure this file but I read something about placing this to serve a folder if it exists but still not working, it still being catched by Symfony's routing so I get a 404 error instead
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

Answer 1

This feels like a bit of a non-answer, but... you shouldn't actually need to do anything special if WordPress (in the /blog subdirectory) is correctly configured.
You should already have an additional .htaccess file in the /blog subdirectory, containing mod_rewrite directives, that handles the URL-routing for WordPress.
For example, the /blog/.htaccess file should contain something like:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
If that's the case then any request to /blog/<anything> will already be routed to WordPress. The mod_rewrite directives in the root (Symfony) .htaccess file are overridden entirely. (Unless mod_rewrite inheritance has been enabled in the server config; but that seems unlikely.)
However, it's possible that the /blog/.htaccess file is incorrect and routing requests back to Symfony. For example, if it's written like the following (the default .htaccess file), then any request for /blog/<anything> will be rewritten to /index.php in the document root (ie. Symfony):
# !!! THIS IS INCORRECT !!!
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
You need to either modify this so it looks like the first .htaccess file. Or like the following (which is more the "WordPress way", but essentially does the same thing), for example:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
The above does the same as the first .htaccess file, except the subdirectory is (unnecessarily) hardcoded. If you let WordPress modify the .htaccess file then I believe it updates it like this.
You also need to make sure that the WordPress WP_SITEURL (Site URL) and WP_HOME (Home URL) settings are correctly configured (either in the Dashboard or wp-config.php file) to serve files from the /blog subdirectory and for /blog to be present in the URL.
Note, however, that other non-mod_rewrite directives in the root .htaccess file will still be inherited from the WordPress installation. Although, looking at your directives, this is probably a good thing. Except... if mod_rewrite is not actually enabled on your system, but I assume you are already using "pretty" URLs? In which case it must be.