apache mod_rewrite rule in httpd.conf for modifying some paths, but not others

Question

I'm having quite a challenge creating an appropriate rewrite rule for Apache/2.2.14 on Fedora 10. I'm working through the CodeIgniter-Doctrine tutorial which uses an .htaccess file. (Search for Removing “index.php” from CodeIgniter urls about 10% down.) But since that's not recommended for a production server, I'm trying to tweak it to work in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName ci_doctrine
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ci_doctrine
    ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/cid-error_log
    CustomLog /var/log/httpd/cid-access_log common
        <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
                RewriteEngine on
                RewriteLog /var/log/httpd/cid_rewrite
                RewriteLogLevel 9

#               RewriteCond ^/css/style.css$  (these have bad syntax, but that's beside the point)
#               RewriteRule ^/css/style.css$ /css/style.css [L]

                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
        </IfModule>
        <IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
                ErrorDocument 404 /ci_doctrine/index.php
        </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

It seems like the tutorial .htaccess rules properly test for existing files and then not alter the URL in such cases, but the rewrite log says that the conditions are true (that is, the file does not exist) even though it's there.

127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (3) applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/login'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-f' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-d' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) rewrite '/login' -> '/index.php//login'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) local path result: /index.php//login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (1) go-ahead with /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/login [OK]
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (3) applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/login'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-f' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-d' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) rewrite '/login' -> '/index.php//login'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) local path result: /index.php//login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/login
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:56 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (1) go-ahead with /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/login [OK]
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (3) applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/css/style.css'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/css/style.css' pattern='!-f' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/css/style.css' pattern='!-d' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) rewrite '/css/style.css' -> '/index.php//css/style.css'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) local path result: /index.php//css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (2) prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#167e8e0/initial] (1) go-ahead with /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/css/style.css [OK]
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (3) applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/css/style.css'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (4) RewriteCond: input='/css/style.css' pattern='!-f' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (4) RewriteCond: input='/css/style.css' pattern='!-d' => matched
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) rewrite '/css/style.css' -> '/index.php//css/style.css'
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) local path result: /index.php//css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (2) prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/css/style.css
127.0.0.1 - - [03/May/2010:23:26:58 --0700] [ci_doctrine/sid#13c1868][rid#16848f8/subreq] (1) go-ahead with /var/www/html/ci_doctrine/index.php/css/style.css [OK]

The file .../css/style.css was working properly before I started messing around with the rewrite rules, so it should be in the right place. But now the path is always munged up by the rewriting, though the virtual components below index.php are properly translated. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You've commented out these rules:

#               RewriteCond ^/css/style.css$  (these have bad syntax, but that's beside the point)
#               RewriteRule ^/css/style.css$ /css/style.css [L]

The latter of these rules detects the request for the stylesheet, rewrites it to the same address (i.e. does nothing) and then states "I am the last rule" - which means when matched, no further rules will be run, which prevents it from then matching on the rules found later on.

If you take away the # from the start of this line, your style.css file will work again, although this isn't a great way of performing address translation as you would have to add a similar rule for every file you don't want to rewrite.

Answer 2

Uncomment just the RewriteRule for style.css, as your RewriteCond is wrong (it should be RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/css/style.css$) and superfluous anyway.

Answer 3

To get this to work, I had to change the ReWriteCond statements like so:

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

The documentation for REQUEST_FILENAME says "The full local filesystem path to the file or script matching the request", but for me it was always missing the DocumentRoot part of the path, which means the 'file exists' test will always be false.

Maybe this is an apache bug, or maybe just a documentation error. I don't know that part. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond