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Htaccess second rewrite rule not working on Production – Apache

The weirdest thing. Both rewrite rules are working on our Test server but the second one locations is not working on Production and adds a / at the end of locations/ for some reason. The configuration is the same on both servers.

I am trying to simplify the URL without renaming the file. So that if the user enters site.php/locations it will load the content of the redirect page but retain the simplified URL

Any ideas as to why the locations redirect is not working?

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /

// The next two are statements are just for context. They preceded the faq and locations forward 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/index.php$
RewriteRule (.*) / [R=301,L]

// The two rewrites that I want
RewriteRule ^faq$ /faq-mailbox-account.php [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^locations$ /choose-digital-mailbox-location.php [NC,L]
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  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    The problem was due to a symbolically linked drive on Prod


  2. 0

    … on Production and adds a / at the end of locations/ for some reason

    This will happen if locations exists as a physical directory on the filesystem. (Or existed and the response was cached.)

    If you request /locations and /locations exists as a physical directory then mod_dir will issue a 301 external redirect to append the trailing slash – ordinarily, this is necessary in order to "fix" the URL.

    This external "redirect" by mod_dir will happen regardless of whether your rule matches or not*1, since it is "only" an internal rewrite and not another redirect. (*1 In fact, it does match and the rewrite does occur, but it is effectively overridden by the mod_dir redirect.)

    You could append an optional slash to your RewriteRule pattern, eg. ^locations/?$ – but the redirect will still occur first if you are requesting /locations without the trailing slash. You would need to request a URL that already contains the trailing slash.

    You could prevent mod_dir from appending the trailing slash using DirectorySlash Off, however, this potentially has other implications for your system.

    Note also, that since this is a 301 (permanent) redirect, it will likely be cached persistently by your browser. So, if the /locations directory has since been deleted on the server, the browser will still redirect the user until all client-side caches have been cleared also.

    The configuration is the same on both servers.

    So, there is (or was) a /locations directory on both servers?

    If the configuration is the same on both servers then you would get the same response, so there must be some difference. Or, there is a client-side caching issue.

    So that if the user enters site.php/locations

    I assume you meant site.com/locations – otherwise, the directives you posted have no hope of working, as they simply won’t match.

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