Strange behavior change in mod_rewrite - apache

In a .htaccess context, I have a simple rewriting rule :
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^dir/([^/]+)/(.*) action/do.php?a=$1&b=$2 [L,QSA]
dir and action are in the same directory, which is also my DocumentRoot.
When accessing http://example.org/dir/a/b the request should (and was) rewritten to http://example.org/action/do.php?a=a&b=b without redirection or anything visible.
However since I upgraded from Apache 1.3 + mod_php to Apache 2.2 (mpm_worker) + PHP FastCGI (don't know how it's related, but it seems to be), the precedent rule returns a 404 error :
The requested URL /var/www/action/do.php was not found on this server.
The DocumentRoot is now inserted in the request ! The file /var/www/var/www/action/do.php obviously doesn't exist.
As a workaround, I changed the rule : (added a / at the beginning of the second part)
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^dir/([^/]+)/(.*) /action/do.php?a=$1&b=$2 [L,QSA]
And it works (because fortunately in this case, I'm in the DocumentRoot directory).
Do you know what caused this behavior change ? Did you notice the same thing ?

Ok, I found what happened.
Actually, I was not in my DocumentRoot but in a VirtualDocumentRoot thanks to mod_vhost_alias.
The issue does not happen when using "real" virtual hosts.

Related

Apache %{REQUEST_URI} not working correctly

I am not using Virtual Hosts or anything fancy though I have some .htaccess files setup. Following is my rewrite rule in httpd.conf:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/app/smsapi [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/uri=%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
This rule basically says that if the uri does not begin with /app/smsapi then fire the rewrite. But when I restart the server and try it I get some weird results.
When I request the URL https://www.example.com/app/smsapi/index.php, I get a 200 Success code which is as expected. But, when I request the URL http://www.example.com/app/smsapi/index.php, it redirects to https://www.example.com/uri=/app/smsapi/index.php. So it actually fires the rule even though the request URI does not satisfy the condition.
So, then I decided to turn off the rewrite rules and give it a go. Now, both those URL give me a 200 Success code.
Now, I know this problem cannot be solved easily by other people who do not have access to the server, but am I right in saying that this is certainly a problem with REQUEST_URI not firing correctly? I have shown that without the rewrite rule, everything works normally, but with the rewrite rule, the second URL is redirected. Therefore, the redirection must be caused by the rewrite rule? Additionally, the condition for redirect rule is not satisfied. Doesn't this prove that there is something wrong with the functioning of the rewrite rule?
Is there any other possibility?
UPDATE
Something very weird is happening here. I setup a local server and tried the same rule and what I got for the URL http://192.168.0.112/app/ is
http://192.168.0.112/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/uri=/app/
which is correct because as long as the URL is not like /app/smsapi, it should redirect it. Wonder why this is not happening on the real server. Also, where you insert these rules seems to make a difference. (I am only including these rules after the LoadModule command).
On localhost, if I put these rules either above or below the Directory section, it won't work. But, if I include it inside the Directory section it will.
On server, if I include the rules inside the Directory section, they won't work. But, if I include them either above or below the Directory section, they start working.
This seems to me to be due to a difference in the versions. My localhost is an Ubuntu Desktop 16.04 running Apache 2.4.18. While the server is CentOS 6.8 running Apache 2.2.15.
But, i think the mystery as to why on the server redirect happens only once (though it is configured to go upto 20 times) has something to do with https. Which is also related to the original problem in which https is redirected even on a non-matching rule.
Clues anyone?
UPDATE
I updated the httpd.conf file with the same rules but I used http:// instead of https:// and it gave me the correct result with 20 redirects. That means I have isolated the problem to https.
You are reporting the exact issue in the first phrase: "I am not using Virtual Hosts or anything fancy though I have some .htaccess files setup"
.htaccess is "fancy" and overcomplicated, not virtualhosts.
If you had defined that RewriteCond in virtualhost in the first place it would work, but .htaccess is per-dir context (aka a nightmare) and the regex ^/ will never match in that context.
If you want to match REQUEST_URI in per-dir context (directory or .htaccess) you need to drop the initial slash, that is:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^app/smsapi [NC]
Extra, also consider you MAY NOT need to add a RewriteCond for this:
RewriteRule ^(?!app/smsapi)(.*) https://www.example.com/uri=$1 [R,L]

Strange behavior for missing files with short URLs

My webserver shows an error for missing pages. These URLs all 404:
http://my.web.site/missing.html
http://my.web.site/missing/
http://my.web.site/missing
But these URLs redirect to / with a 301 Moved Permanentlystatus code:
http://my.web.site/m/
http://my.web.site/m
Why do these URLs not 404? And how can I turn the 301 redirection off?
Since I don't have access to http.conf on this shared server (Apache), I am looking for a solution in .htaccess.
Just to clarify: What I want is that all missing pages 404.
Note:
The observed behavior (301 for one letter URLs) is the default on my (shared) webspace. There is no .htaccess file at this moment. I'm looking to resolve this issue with a .htaccess file.
The behavior described in my question is caused by the Apache module mod_spelling. Creating a .htaccess with
CheckSpelling Off
solved the problem.
I am disappointed that my bounty was awarded to an "answer" that (a) did not answer my question, (b) suggested a "solution" that would cause the exact behavior I was trying to avoid (301), and (c) my comment that points this out was ignored by the answerer.
as you know you don't have access of http.conf file so first you need to check that your htaccess rewrite is working or not
If it is working (for checking it you can write some environment variable
SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV dev_dev
and check in $_SERVER
Now time to do something in htaccess for 301 redirection
I have write this code in my HTACCESS
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^testurl/?$ /home/? [L,NC,R=301]
I don't know you want to redirect from which URL to which , But
in my code xyz.com/testurl will redirect to xyz.com/home
here my application is codeIgniter so might be you have page extension .php or .html like this

mod_rewrite doesnt work if file with same name as argument exists

I'm experiencing some issues with mod_rewrite in htaccess.
Let's for instance say I request example.com/foo/, it works perfectly if I don't have a file starting with "foo.*" in the root directory.
Let's say I have news.php, sitemape.xml, style.css in root, I can't use /news/ or /sitemap/ or /style/ , it will give a 404 like /news.php/ etc.
Here's my rewrite string. It works locally with my Apache 2.2.22 but not at my web-host with the same Apache version.
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9]+)/?$ index.php?category=$1 [NC,L]
Anyone has a clue?
This sounds like Multiviews rearing its ugly head when its not wanted. It may be that your host automatically turns on the Multiviews option by default, and mod_negotiation then tries to "guess" what the request is for, and if it's close enough (like with /news/ and /news.php), it will automatically serve it, and disregard whatever mod_rewrite rules you may have.
Try turning off multiviews. You can do this in your htaccess file using the Options directive (assuming your host has allowed Options):
Options -Multiviews

How to configure apache (ubuntu) such that www.mysite.com will direct to www.mysite.com/drupal6/?

I am a newbie to ubuntu and apache. Can someone tell me how I could direct to
www.mysite.com/drupal6
when user address www.mysite.com?
Thanks a lot.
Cheers.
If you are running Apache and Ubuntu, there is actually a really easy way to force this redirect using a simple php script.
Create an index.php file in the root of your server and paste the following code into it
<?php header("location: drupal6/") ?>
This will cause the site to auto-redirect to the drupal6 folder whenever it is visited.
This should work. Create a file in the root folder of your server called .htaccess - the dot at the beginning is very important as this helps the server identify the file as a hidden / system config file.
Open the file and paste the following lines of code in :
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ www.mysite.com/drupal6/$1 [R,L]
This should force all traffic to the server to redirect to your custom folder.
A brief explanation of the .htaccess code
If you want rewrites to work, you have to enable the Rewrite Engine and tell the server to follow symlinks.
The second section establishes the rule - specifically applying it to all traffic on the standard web port of 80.
The final line tells the server to grab everything after the URL and append it to the new address (mysite.com/drupal6).
There's a lot more you can do with .htaccess files but you really need to Google for good examples to test out.
Look at Apache's mod_rewrite documentation. You will need a RewriteRule in your apache configuration at the minimum, you may also need RewriteCond's to define when the RewriteRule is used.
Your rewrite pattern will be rewriting the REQUEST_URI with something from: ^/$ to: /drupal6. The ^ and $ are essential to prevent Apache getting into an infinite loop while rewriting the base URI by only matching "/" and not "/anything-else".
I assume you're on a recent version of Ubuntu and Apache? If so, see the Apache 2.2 documentation on mod_rewrite.

apache resolving urls before looking in .htaccess

I have a rewrite rule of the following form:
RewriteRule ^foo/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ foo.php?arg=$1 [qsa,nc]
It takes urls of the form /foo/bar and changes them to /foo.php?arg=bar
It works properly locally, and it works on my old host but I moved to a new host (running ubuntu) and it behaves differently.
On the new host apache notices that there is a foo.php and calls it directly. In other words, urls of the form /foo/bar are seen as /foo.php. If I rename foo.php to foo_junk.php and change the rewrite rule to be
RewriteRule ^foo/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ foo_junk.php?arg=$1 [qsa,nc]
Then it all works. So it's not that I didn't enable overrides or that I failed to install mod_rewrite or anything. Rewrites work, they're just being done at a different point in the process of resolving a url than they are locally.
Is there a configuration option for this?
Try disabling MultiViews:
Options -MultiViews