RewriteCond thinks existing file does not exist

Question

I want to achieve my /assets/img urls are rewritten to a specific location when that file exists, but otherwise to a php script. Therefore I have these rules:

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}assets/img$1/.$2.$4/$3.$4 -f
RewriteRule ^assets/img(.*)/([a-zA-Z0-9-_\.]*)\.([^/]+)\.([a-z]{2,4})$ assets/img$1/.$2.$4/$3.$4 [NC,QSA]
RewriteRule ^assets/img(.*)/([a-zA-Z0-9-_\.]*)\.([^/]+)\.([a-z]{2,4})$ assets/img/image.php?path=$1&file=$2.$4&key=$3 [NC,L,QSA]

Nevertheless, the RewriteCond and first RewriteRule don't seem to work. I always get pointed to the php script.

For example, I test this url but see the output of the php script

/assets/img/image.small.png

Then I test if the location of the first RewriteRule works, and see the image I want to have:

/assets/img/.image.png/small.png

My only conclusion is Apache cannot determine if the file exist. How can I make this happen?

Answer 1

The problem is that a RewriteCond only applies to the rule immediately following it, so your second RewriteRule is always run. One solution is to negate the test you are making, then have the next command skip the two commands you want to run.

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}assets/img$1/.$2.$4/$3.$4 !-f
RewriteRule . - [S=2]
RewriteRule ^assets/img(.*)/([a-zA-Z0-9-_\.]*)\.([^/]+)\.([a-z]{2,4})$ assets/img$1/.$2.$4/$3.$4 [NC,QSA]
RewriteRule ^assets/img(.*)/([a-zA-Z0-9-_\.]*)\.([^/]+)\.([a-z]{2,4})$ assets/img/image.php?path=$1&file=$2.$4&key=$3 [NC,L,QSA]