Apache mod_rewrite going berserk - redirecting where it shouldn't - apache

Question

I have a script that echoes a meta redirect to a page called account_management.php5, but for some reason it automatically redirects from there to index.php5. My .htaccess file handles a couple of redirects automatically, for example index.html|php5 to the domain root, and that's the only place I can see this problem originating, but I don't understand why. This is my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
#remember to change this to aromaclear
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^sinaesthesia\.co.uk$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://sinaesthesia.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ .*/index\.(php5|html)\ HTTP
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.(php5|html)$ /$1 [R=301,L]
#translate any .html ending into .php5
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1\.php5
#change / for ?
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html/(.*)$ /$1\.html?$2
#strip .html from search res page
RewriteRule ^(.*)search/(.*)$ /$1search_results\.html/search=$2
#translate product details link from search res page
RewriteRule ^products/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)$ /product_details.php5?category=$1&title=$2&id=$3 [L]
#Translate products/psorisis/chamomile-skin-cream-P[x] to productview.php5?id=1
RewriteRule ^products/.*-P([0-9]+) /productview.php5?id=$1 [L]

Answer 1

Wrong:
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1\.php5
Right:
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1.php5
Righter:
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1.php5 [QSA]
This same mistake of escaping special chars in the second param of RewriteRule is happening in other rules too, I don't know if apache will handle it, but I know you don't need it because second param is not a regexp.
Never compare to %{THE_REQUEST}, thats a weird thing to do, you don't need that. Moreover, this condition is fine without it. Just put there:
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.(php5|html)$ $1 [R=301,QSA,L]
Now look at it:
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html/(.*)$ /$1.html?$2
First, you are still accepting that there are references to .html files, just after trying to translate all .html to .php5, there's something wrong here.
Moreover, you are defineing as QueryString something that was originally a file path, and are not even putting it in a key. It won't work, it need some more treatment.
#strip .html from search res page
RewriteRule ^(.*)search/(.*)$ /$1search_results.html/search=$2
Wasn't it supposed to strip the .html? Because it is actually putting a .html there. Maybe as it is not an [L] it get fixed in the next loop, but you could just get all fixed right here.
#translate product details link from search res page
RewriteRule ^products/(.*)/(.*)/(.*)$ /product_details.php5?category=$1&title=$2&id=$3 [L]
This one full of .* is potentially unstable, specially delimitating the end. You should do this:
RewriteRule ^products/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*) /product_details.php5?category=$1&title=$2&id=$3 [L]
# or:
RewriteRule ^products/(.*?)/(.*?)/([^/]*) /product_details.php5?category=$1&title=$2&id=$3 [L]
The last one looks correct, except that you should strip the special character that may be faced as a range delimiter, the "-". I don't think it work after a *, but just to be sure and correct the syntax:
RewriteRule ^products/.*\-P([0-9]+) /productview.php5?id=$1 [L]

Answer 2

Add this just after RewriteEngine on
RewriteLogLevel 9
RewriteLog /tmp/rw.log
Then restart the webserver. It should help you debug the problem.
Edit: Sorry, I didn't notice the .htaccess above. This will only work from the main apache configuration file.