trouble using environment variables in rewriterules

[Jeremy Jones <jeremagne@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I'm trying to set an environment variable in httpd.conf and then have it available to the URL-portion of a RewriteRule in a .htaccess file. Please could someone assist:

In httpd.conf I have this line setting the environment variable:

SetEnv       MODPERLPORT      81

and in .htaccess I want to do something like this:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule     foo\.cgi      http://myserver:%{ENV:MODPERLPORT}%{REQUEST_URI}    [P,L]

to have Apache proxy the request through to another Apache process running on a different port, but it doesn't seem like any environment variables are available in the URL portion of the rule. 

I've also tried to do things like this:

RewriteEngine   On

RewriteCond     %{ENV:MODPERLPORT}      ([0-9]+)

RewriteRule      foo\.cgi                                     http://myserver:%1%{REQUEST_URI}    [P,L]

but the condition fails, even though the environment variable is set if I look at a simple dump of the environment e.g. env.cgi through a browser.

So far the only hacky way I can get this to work is to set a built-in variable to the value I need, e.g.:

httpd.conf:

ServerAdmin    81

.htaccess

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule     foo\.cgi               http://myserver:%{SERVER_ADMIN}%{REQUEST_URI}   [P,L]

but that's clearly a very poor solution for many reasons, not least that I need the modperlport to vary for different environments without the .htaccess file having to change for each environment.

Can anyone advise if there's a better/correct way to set customised environment variables and then de-reference them within the URL portion of a rewrite rule?

Thanks.

Jeremy