Rewrite Url with apache2 - apache

Question

I'm experimenting with CodeIgniter PHP framework, this framework works like:
http://localhost:7777/~dhalsim/ci/index.php/blog
So, I tried to remove index.php part from there. So far I do these:
make $config['index_page'] = "index.php"; to $config['index_page'] = "";
make $config['uri_protocol'] = "REQUEST_URI"; from $config['uri_protocol'] = "AUTO";
enable apache mod_rewrite by "a2enmod rewrite"
put a .htaccess file to /ci directory:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
And of course restart apache server
Here is my apache logs with these configurations:
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] strip per-dir prefix: /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/blog -> blog
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'blog'
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (4) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] RewriteCond: input='/~dhalsim/ci/blog' pattern='^system.*' => not-matched
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] strip per-dir prefix: /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/blog -> blog
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'blog'
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (4) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] RewriteCond: input='/home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/blog' pattern='!-f' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (4) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] RewriteCond: input='/home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/blog' pattern='!-d' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (2) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] rewrite 'blog' -> 'index.php?/blog'
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) split uri=index.php?/blog -> uri=index.php, args=/blog
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (3) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] add per-dir prefix: index.php -> /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/index.php
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (2) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] trying to replace prefix /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/ with /
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (5) strip matching prefix: /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/index.php -> index.php
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (4) add subst prefix: index.php -> /index.php
127.0.0.1 - - [17/Jul/2009:02:21:41 +0300] [localhost/sid#7f48e8ad2968][rid#7f48e8e634c8/initial] (1) [perdir /home/dhalsim/public_html/ci/] internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
Here is the result in Firefox:
404 Not Found:
The requested URL /index.php was not found on this server.
So, what should I do (or where am I wrong) to get work these URLs?
http://localhost:7777/~dhalsim/ci/blog/ instead of http://localhost:7777/~dhalsim/ci/index.php/blog/

Answer 1

Here is how i resolve it:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|flash|css|js|robots\.txt|downloads)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
Then in the config.php file
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Base Site URL
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| URL to your CodeIgniter root. Typically this will be your base URL,
| WITH a trailing slash:
|
| http://example.com/
|
*/
$config['base_url'] = "http://localhost:7777/~dhalsim/ci/";
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Index File
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Typically this will be your index.php file, unless you've renamed it to
| something else. If you are using mod_rewrite to remove the page set this
| variable so that it is blank.
|
*/
$config['index_page'] = "";
UPDATE
In the routes.php file:
//Point to default controller
$route['default_controller'] = "site/home"; //Set to your controller
// Point to the right controller
$routing_array = array(
'blog' => 'site/blog',
); // set to your blog controler

Answer 2

Use the following Rewrite Rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [NC,L]
In order for this to work you should setup your CodeIgniter app on a different port or use /etc/hosts to give it a simple Vhost (127.0.0.1 ci and http://ci:7777/ with Apache set to use the ci vhost.). Then you can set the base url to / and not worry about it. Otherwise you're going to have to deal with confusing directory issues and mod_rewrite.