title: How to use apache2 mod_rewrite within a Directory directive that uses wildcards?
body: <p>I have written a web application which I run under a dedicated server for hosting the web application.  Instances of this web application are available at different domains, and each domain has its own copy of the web application files, allowing for customization as necessary.</p>
  
  <p>I'm running Apache/2.2.16 under Debian Squeeze.</p>
  
  <p>I do all of the configuration under a VirtualHost directive and do not use .htaccess files.</p>
  
  <p>To simplify the apache configuration, I am wanting to maintain a single Directory directive like such:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Directory "/srv/www/*/public/"&gt;
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/robots.txt
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, the RewriteRule produces the wrong results because while using the wildcard Directory value, it fails to strip the per-directory prefix.  Here is the output of the rewrite log:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[rid#b9832078/initial] (3) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] applying pattern '^(.+)$' to uri '/srv/www/domain1/public/login'
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/login' pattern='!-f' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/login' pattern='!-d' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/favicon.ico' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/robots.txt' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (2) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] rewrite '/srv/www/domain1/public/login' -&gt; '/index.php?q=/srv/www/domain1/public/login'
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (3) split uri=/index.php?q=/srv/www/domain1/public/login -&gt; uri=/index.php, args=q=/srv/www/domain1/public/login
  [rid#b9832078/initial] (1) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
  [rid#b9847440/initial/redir#1] (3) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] applying pattern '^(.+)$' to uri '/srv/www/domain1/public/index.php'
  [rid#b9847440/initial/redir#1] (4) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/index.php' pattern='!-f' =&gt; not-matched
  [rid#b9847440/initial/redir#1] (1) [perdir /srv/www/*/public/] pass through /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The problem is that the RewriteRule 'uri' is the filesystem path rather than the url path, which results in the query string being incorrect: <em>q=/srv/www/domain1/public/login</em></p>
  
  <p>Explicitly specifying the Directory path like such:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Directory "/srv/www/domain1/public/"&gt;
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/robots.txt
    RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Works just fine, and here is the output of the rewrite log showing the correct behavior (the difference being the new first additional line providing the correct input to the rest of the rewrite resulting in the correct query string: <em>q=login</em>):</p>
  
  <pre><code>[rid#b9868048/initial] (3) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /srv/www/domain1/public/login -&gt; login
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (3) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] applying pattern '^(.+)$' to uri 'login'
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/login' pattern='!-f' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/login' pattern='!-d' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/favicon.ico' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (4) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/robots.txt' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (2) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] rewrite 'login' -&gt; '/index.php?q=login'
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (3) split uri=/index.php?q=login -&gt; uri=/index.php, args=q=login
  [rid#b9868048/initial] (1) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
  [rid#b987d5f8/initial/redir#1] (3) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php -&gt; index.php
  [rid#b987d5f8/initial/redir#1] (3) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] applying pattern '^(.+)$' to uri 'index.php'
  [rid#b987d5f8/initial/redir#1] (4) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] RewriteCond: input='/srv/www/domain1/public/index.php' pattern='!-f' =&gt; not-matched
  [rid#b987d5f8/initial/redir#1] (1) [perdir /srv/www/domain1/public/] pass through /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I expect I'm running into a bug with Apache, but if that isn't the case, what am I doing wrong?</p>
  
  <p>While I appreciate input to changing the approach to another workable solution, I'd accept an answer that solves it in the approach I've taken (eg not using .htaccess) unless it can be shown this approach is not solvable.</p>
  
  <p>So is there something that has to change to the RewriteCond/Rules when used within a wildcard Directory?</p>
  
  <p>Side note for the curious: For further simplification I use a single VirtualHost using VirtualDocumentRoot - however this is unrelated as this issue is replicated with using 'DocumentRoot' and testing under a single domain.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <p>Ok, I've revisited this based on <em>regilero</em>'s answer and here is what occurs - moving the Rewrite, as is, out of the Directory results in a slight initial problem of the query string changing from "login" to "/login", this is fixed by modifying the RewriteRule to be: <code>RewriteRule ^/(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]</code> which fixes my previous "inexplicably fails" comment.</p>
  
  <p>Following that, all static files fail to load, here is the rewrite log showing this problem:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /login
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/(.+)$' to uri '/login'
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-f' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!-d' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/favicon.ico' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/login' pattern='!=/robots.txt' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (2) rewrite '/login' -&gt; '/index.php?q=login'
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (3) split uri=/index.php?q=login -&gt; uri=/index.php, args=q=login
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (2) local path result: /index.php
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (2) prefixed with document_root to /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php
  [rid#b7bc7fa0/initial] (1) go-ahead with /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php [OK]
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /static/css/common.css
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/(.+)$' to uri '/static/css/common.css'
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/static/css/common.css' pattern='!-f' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/static/css/common.css' pattern='!-d' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/static/css/common.css' pattern='!=/favicon.ico' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='/static/css/common.css' pattern='!=/robots.txt' =&gt; matched
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (2) rewrite '/static/css/common.css' -&gt; '/index.php?q=static/css/common.css'
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (3) split uri=/index.php?q=static/css/common.css -&gt; uri=/index.php, args=q=static/css/common.css
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (2) local path result: /index.php
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (2) prefixed with document_root to /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php
  [rid#b7be6b80/initial] (1) go-ahead with /srv/www/domain1/public/index.php [OK]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But like I said in my comment to <em>regilero</em>'s answer, this is solved by prefixing the RewriteCond directives TestString with %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}.  However, using %{DOCUMENT_ROOT} does not work when using VirtualDocumentRoot.</p>
  
  <p>It does not seem right to me that the %{DOCUMENT_ROOT} prefix should be necessary.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>REQUEST_FILENAME</p>
    
    <p>The full local filesystem path to the file or script matching the
    request, if this has already been determined by the server at the time
    REQUEST_FILENAME is referenced. Otherwise, such as when used in
    virtual host context, the same value as REQUEST_URI.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>which explains the need for the DOCUMENT_ROOT prefix.</p>
  
  <p>I've updated the rewrite rules to this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/robots.txt
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
  RewriteRule ^/(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 [PT,L,QSA]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Which works ok (Note: the PT flag is necessary to avoid prematurely translating the url path to a file system path when using VirutalDocumentRoot).  The main change in behavior here is that a RewriteCond will be necessary for all entry points into the application - similar to the /static line.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <p>Here is my final incarnation of Rewrite directives in the VirtualHost outside of any Directory directives:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/robots.txt
  RewriteRule ^/(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 [NS,PT,L,QSA]
  RewriteRule ^/$ /index.php [NS,PT,L,QSA]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've added the <code>NS</code> flag to avoid an extra internal evaluation and added the second <code>RewriteRule</code> directive in favor of using mod_dir and <code>DirectoryIndex</code>.  My application expects no q= parameter for the root url, else a single <code>RewriteRule</code> of <code>RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [NS,PT,L,QSA]</code> would be sufficient if the application was updated to accept an empty <code>q=</code> parameter for the root url.  I may do that in the future. </p>