Infinite loop with mod_rewrite and vhost_alias - apache

Question

I made myself a dynamic vhost file for all directories in /home/lukasz/websites
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName vm01.dev
ServerAlias *.vm01.dev
SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV "lukasz"
VirtualDocumentRoot /home/lukasz/websites/%1/public
<directory /home/lukasz/websites/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
</directory>
</VirtualHost>
It works well until very simple rule from mod_rewrite comes to play. If I add following code to the .htacesss
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]
The apache server will be unable to respond. It will go into an infinite loop and will break out from the execution after 10 redirects. This problem is tightly related to VirtualDocumentRoot I'm using. How should I modify my config to keep it dynamic and stop it breaking with about htaccess?

Answer 1

I'm guessing you want to make index.php the default page, when the requested resource doesn't exist, you didn't say.
If this is the case then adding an ErrorDocument entry to your virtualHost will suffice e.g.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
If you are going to use mod_rewrite, it's far more efficient to place the rules in the Virtualhost definition than in a .htaccess file. As the httpd.conf is read once at start-up and all rule compiled, as opposed to the .htaccess file being read and all rules parsed for each request. Anyway the following should stop the loop:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-s
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* /index.php [L]
Assuming you have an: /index.php
FYI: The Apache mod_rewrite documentation is worth a read if your unclear as to what the above rules do, or if you want something a little more abstract consider the following post.