Re: RewriteRule and redirect loop with htaccess

[Dave Wreski <dwreski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have a rewrite that's creating a loop because the origin is contained in the final destination. I know it then is processed again by the .htaccess in the document root, but I don't understand why or how to stop it. What's the solution here?

RewriteRule ^/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat$ https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated [L,R=301,END]

I've tried variations of the above but it always creates a loop.

$ wget -O /dev/null https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat 2>&1|grep -E 'Location|HTTP'
HTTP response 302  [https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat]
HTTP response 301  [https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated]
HTTP response 200  [https://linuxsecurity.com//features]

Thanks,
Dave

If you don't depend on mod_rewrite for anything else, I would recommend using RedirectMatch instead.

That rule on its own won't loop, unless you have other conflicting directive or rewrite rules.

If you must use mod_rewrite, then enabling the rewrite log will help you pinpoint the source of the loop.

Are you suggesting RedirectMatch because using RewriteRule when the origin is a subset of the destination is a known problem?

Here's what the rewrite log trace looks like:

rewrite '/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat' -> 'https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated'
explicitly forcing redirect with https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated
escaping https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated for redirect
redirect to https://linuxsecurity.com/features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated [REDIRECT/301]
init rewrite engine with requested uri /features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated

it then appears to loop through the htaccess:

rewrite 'features/linux-malware-the-truth-about-this-growing-threat-updated' -> 'index.php'
add per-dir prefix: index.php -> /var/www/linuxsec/html/index.php
trying to replace prefix /var/www/linuxsec/html/ with /
internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
init rewrite engine with requested uri /index.php

Thanks,
Dave