500 Server Error: Infinite rewrite loop in Apache 2.2.x with mod_vhost_alias, VirtualDocumentRoot, and mod_rewrite for routing / "pretty" URLs

Question

I'm running into a problem using Apache's mod_vhost_alias directives and mod_rewrite for routing "pretty URLs" with a local development machine. I know that it's possible to do so, because my hosting provider uses a similar configuration and has no problems. However, whenever I try on my local machine, Apache returns a 500 Internal Server Error, and the logs indicate too many internal redirects.

Normally Done

I typically follow a simple conventional process when adding domains to my local machine for development:

• Create a directory in /path/to/www/ named according to the domain, ie: /path/to/www/example.local/
• Add an entry into /etc/hosts for the new domain, ie: 127.0.0.1 example.local
• Add a VirtualHost directive for the new domain with the DocumentRoot set to /path/to/www/example.local/pub/
• Restart Apache

The Problem

I recently started using the VirtualDocumentRoot directive supplied by mod_vhost_alias to clean up my ever-growing list of VirtualHost directives and save me the hassle of restarting Apache after every new domain:

CanonicalName Off
VirtualDocumentRoot /path/to/www/%0/pub/

Within one of the domains, say example.local, I might have the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteRule .* index.php/%0 [L]

That's a typical "pretty URL" / routing pattern for most modern applications and frameworks. However, Apache enters an infinite redirect loop when I attempt to load example.local/anything/that/should/work in my browser.

I enabled the RewriteLog to determine what was going on, and found that Apache was performing the following:

• Remove the directory prefix (/path/to/www/example.local/pub/) from the URL
• Process the RewriteRules normally, as expected, generating /index.php/anything/that/should/work
• Prepend the directory prefix again, yielding: /path/to/www/example.local/pub/index.php/anything/that/should/work
• Start over. (!?!?)

The Question

Has anyone else seen this behavior and formulated a fix for it? Alternatively, can someone see a glaring error in my Apache config that I might be missing?

Answer 1

Have you tried adding the NS flag to your RewriteRule:

RewriteRule .* index.php/%0 [L,NS]

Answer 2

Try using RewriteBase, I had the same problem and it worked for me. Good luck.