RewriteBase Rule – Works in .htaccess but Not in httpd.conf

.htaccessapache-2.2httpd.confmod-rewriterewrite

Let me explain by example…

File: /var/www/example.com/public/wp-content/cache/minify/.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    # THIS WORKS...
    RewriteBase /wp-content/cache/minify/
    RewriteRule /w3tc_rewrite_test$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} -f
    RewriteRule (.*) $1%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} [L]
    RewriteRule ^(.+/[X]+\.css)$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?test_file=$1 [L]
    RewriteRule ^(.+\.(css|js))$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?file=$1 [L]

</IfModule>

File: /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

<Directory /var/www/example.com/public>

    AllowOverride None

    Options -MultiViews

    [...]

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
      # Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        RewriteEngine On
      # RewriteBase /
    </IfModule>

    [...]

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

        # BUT THIS ISN'T WORKING!!!
        RewriteBase /wp-content/cache/minify/
        RewriteRule /w3tc_rewrite_test$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 [L]
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} -f
        RewriteRule (.*) $1%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} [L]
        RewriteRule ^(.+/[X]+\.css)$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?test_file=$1 [L]
        RewriteRule ^(.+\.(css|js))$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?file=$1 [L]

    </IfModule>

    [...]

</Directory>

For performance, I want to disable use of .htaccess on my server, and use the httpd.conf configuration file instead, which is what you can see above.

The thing is, the .htaccess rule which is placed in the specific directory (/var/www/example.com/public/wp-content/cache/minify/) works, but the same rule in my httpd.conf file doesn't. I am not sure why. What could I be doing wrong here?

Best Answer

Not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it works. Essentially, it needs the RewriteEngine On rule in the second <Directory> section as well.

File: /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

<Directory /var/www/example.com/public>
    AllowOverride None
    Options -MultiViews

    [...]

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
      # Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        RewriteEngine On
      # RewriteBase /
    </IfModule>

    [...]
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/example.com/public/wp-content/cache/minify>
    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /wp-content/cache/minify/
        RewriteRule /w3tc_rewrite_test$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 [L]
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} -f
        RewriteRule (.*) $1%{ENV:APPEND_EXT} [L]
        RewriteRule ^(.+/[X]+\.css)$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?test_file=$1 [L]
        RewriteRule ^(.+\.(css|js))$ ../../plugins/w3-total-cache/pub/minify.php?file=$1 [L]
    </IfModule>
</Directory>

Related Solutions

Tomcat – Apache2 – mod_expire and mod_rewrite not working in httpd.conf – serving content from tomcat

Probably the ProxyPass / directive you have in your config routes all requests to the Tomcat backend, bypassing all your mod_rewrite directives. You can try to remove the ProxyPass directive and use RewriteRule with the [P] flag after your other rewrites:

mod_rewrite: P|proxy

For the expire headers the situation is worse — in another similar question a solution was not found.

Option +FollowSymLinks would be needed for using mod_rewrite in .htaccess files; in your case it is not required, because you can put everything in the Apache config. Moving rules from config to .htaccess is pointless and can only make things slower. However, there is an important difference between .htaccess and the Apache config — in .htaccess patterns in RewriteRule are matched against relative filesystem paths (which never start with /), while in the VirtualHost context these patterns are matched against the URL path after the hostname, which always starts with /. Therefore at least one of your rules is incorrect:

RewriteRule ^content/(js|css)/([a-z]+)-([0-9]+)\.(js|css)$ /content/$1/$2.$4

should be

RewriteRule ^/content/(js|css)/([a-z]+)-([0-9]+)\.(js|css)$ /content/$1/$2.$4

(note the additional slash in the beginning).

Apache2 Permission denied: access to / denied

Remove:

Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Tomcat – Apache2 – mod_expire and mod_rewrite not working in httpd.conf – serving content from tomcat

Apache2 Permission denied: access to / denied

Related Topic