Problems breaking an .htaccess redirect out of an infinite loop

Question

So I have asked for help over at my weblog, scoured the internet, and pored over the examples you all have provided on here before, and I still cannot find an answer that works.

Simply put, I am trying to take all traffic referred to my site from Site A, and redirect it all to Page B within my domain. I have gotten the redirect to work perfectly, but I cannot get it to break out of an infinite loop. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Code follows (though it has been "anonymized" from the specific pages I was using):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !filename\.html$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://online\.webpage\.com.* [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.wallsofthecity.net/year/mo/filename.html [L]
</IfModule>

Like I said, the RewriteRule works beautifully, but the first RewriteCond does not appear to be flagging when it is at the appropriate page, and just keeps redirecting folks, ad nauseum. I have been using this site: http://rexswain.com/httpview.html to check my code, and while useful, it has not given me any good answers.

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

UPDATE:

So here is the .htacces file in its entirety, since that may make things easier:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

# Force an external redirect to this page for referrals from that site
# This page *must* exist to prevent a loop (which it does, I checked :P)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://mikeb302000\.blogspot\.com.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html
RewriteRule . /2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html [R,L]

# This scenario performs no rewrite, so it should actually just be handled by
# the RewriteConds below (they won't match), but I didn't test that
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(stats|failed_auth\.html).*$ [NC]
RewriteRule . - [L]

Redirect permanent /index.xml http://www.wallsofthecity.net/feed/
Redirect permanent /rss.xml http://www.wallsofthecity.net/feed/
Redirect permanent /atom.xml http://www.wallsofthecity.net/feed/atom/
Redirect permanent /12_tribes http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/12-tribes
Redirect permanent /as_i_say_not_do http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/as-i-say-not-do
Redirect permanent /bigotry_exposed http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/bigotry-exposed
Redirect permanent /commercial_appeal http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/commercial-appeal
Redirect permanent /cowardice_on_parade http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/cowardice-on-parade
Redirect permanent /crosscountry_jaunt http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/crosscountry-jaunt
Redirect permanent /digital_real_estate http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/digital-real-estate
Redirect permanent /fools_and_jesters http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/fools-and-jesters
Redirect permanent /for_hire http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/for-hire
Redirect permanent /me_myself_and_i http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/me-myself-and-i
Redirect permanent /musings_of_a_madman http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/musings-of-a-madman
Redirect permanent /one-line_review http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/one-line-review
Redirect permanent /patron_polity_of_perforation http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/patron-polity-of-perforation
Redirect permanent /peoples_republic_of_kalifornistan http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/peoples-republic-of-kalifornistan
Redirect permanent /sensor_ping http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/sensor-ping
Redirect permanent /serenity http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/serenity
Redirect permanent /simon_jester http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/simon-jester
Redirect permanent /the_funnies http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/the-funnies
Redirect permanent /the_mat http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/the-mat
Redirect permanent /things_that_go_boom http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/things-that-go-boom
Redirect permanent /toysgizmosgadgets http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/toysgizmosgadgets
Redirect permanent /urk http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/urk
Redirect permanent /window_on_the_world http://www.wallsofthecity.net/category/window-on-the-world

</IfModule>

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Note: it still does not appear to be working. Test away :).

Answer 1

The first thing I'd try is changing the rewrite condition as follows:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^.*filename\.html$

I think Apache is not supposed to force the match to start at the beginning of the string, but if it does (for whatever reason) and if that's the cause of your problem, this change will fix it.

As an alternative to that, just drop the first rewrite condition entirely and change your rewriting rule to

RewriteRule !year/mo/filename.html http://www.wallsofthecity.net/year/mo/filename.html

Answer 2

Edit: Let's try this instead (removed previous to limit post length):

External Redirect:

RewriteEngine On

# Force an external redirect to this page for referrals from that site
# This page *must* exist to prevent a loop (which it does, I checked :P)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://mikeb302000\.blogspot\.com.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html
RewriteRule . /2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html [R,L]

# This scenario performs no rewrite, so it should actually just be handled by
# the RewriteConds below (they won't match), but I didn't test that
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(stats|failed_auth\.html).*$ [NC]
RewriteRule . - [L]

# With an external redirect, the first RewriteCond catches our referrer redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# These are always evaluated after mod_rewrite stuff, but use the original
# REQUEST_URI unless we explicitly passed it through to handlers later in
# the chain (via the PT flag)
Redirect permanent ... (trimmed)

Internal Redirect:

RewriteEngine On

# Force an external redirect to this page for referrals from that site
# This page *must* exist to prevent a loop (which it does, I checked :P)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://mikeb302000\.blogspot\.com.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html
RewriteRule . /2010/04/cruisin-for-a-bruisin.html [L]

# This scenario performs no rewrite, so it should actually just be handled by
# the RewriteConds below (they won't match), but I didn't test that
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(stats|failed_auth\.html).*$ [NC]
RewriteRule . - [L]

# With an internal redirect, we have to do an extra check to prevent this rewrite
# with our referrer redirect
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond $0 !-f
RewriteRule .* /index.php [L]

# These are always evaluated after mod_rewrite stuff, but use the original
# REQUEST_URI unless we explicitly passed it through to handlers later in
# the chain (via the PT flag)
Redirect permanent ... (trimmed)

Edit (again):

Let's try a little diagnostics too...Can you put this above your other rules in the .htaccess file?

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} diagnostic
RewriteRule . /?ref=%{HTTP_REFERER}&uri=%{REQUEST_URI}&matchable=$0 [R,L]