RewriteRule to cause subdomain to load another DocumentRoot? - apache

Question

Apache (mostly) noob here... could sure use a little help with what I am trying to do with a RewriteRule in .htaccess:
...to causes URLs using our sharpedge. subdomain to auto-load from the Internet_IE directory - one level deeper than the site root.
I have this in httpd.conf:
[snip]
NameVirtualHost 11.22.33.44
<VirtualHost 11.22.33.44>
Options All +ExecCGI
ServerAdmin hostmaster#ourhost.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourdomain.com
ServerName ourdomain.com
ServerAlias www.ourdomain.com
DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.dna
#---------------------------------
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
</IfModule>
#---------------------------------
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 11.22.33.44>
Options All +ExecCGI
ServerAdmin hostmaster#ourhost.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourdomain.com
ServerName sharpedge.ourdomain.com
DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.dna
#---------------------------------
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
</IfModule>
#---------------------------------
</VirtualHost>
[snip]
...and this in .htaccess (in the site root, here: /var/www/html/ourdomain.com/)
Options -Indexes
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com$
# years ago this next line was used here, but in httpd.conf: (I don't know what it was supposed to do)
# RewriteRule ^(.+) %{HTTP_HOST}$1 [C]
RewriteRule ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com(.*) /var/www/html/ourdomain.com/Internet_IE/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
..but nothing happens from the RewriteRule; it is as if the RewriteRule was not there.
I'd much appreciate any suggestions.
Edits:
I would just change the DocumentRoot to the directory I actually want to serve, but I need to be able to call (include) files from within files in that directory with a prefixing / in the include path, where those files are located in the site root. Those files are also similarly called from other files that are in the site root.

Answer 1

You don't want to put any part of your host in the RewriteRule, but you got the HTTP_HOST right, try:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com$ [NC]
# to prevent looping
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /Internet_IE/$1 [L]
Try changing the !-f and !-d checks:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/Internet_IE/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /Internet_IE/$1 [L]