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mod_rewrite tries to redirect if folder exists – Apache

I have an HTTP-API, written in PHP and I redirect all calls to my index.php where a (Slim-)router does the rest. That works.

My redirection in .htaccess looks like:

Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^ index.php [QSA,L]

There is only one problem: If one endpoint is named identically with an existing folder, strange things happen. That’s the case when I create an endpoint [PUT] /test, while there is also a folder called test, containing unit tests.

This is what is happening:

  • If I call [PUT] /test with preflight I get no response at all for the OPTIONS call which leads my app to fail. That’s the real problem case, since I need CORS.
  • If I call it without preflight and PUT I get 301 forwarding on the same endpoint.
  • If I call it without preflight and POST I get 301 forwarding on the same endpoint, but with GET?!

I guess I have to change something in .htaccess to make it ignore the existence of the folder, but what?

How to reproduce

Have an Apache server and create directory as following:

  • /target
  • /target/.htaccess 
Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^ index.php [QSA,L]
  • /target/index.php
<?php echo $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

  • /target/subfolder

  • /testscript.html

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>test</title>
    <style>
        div {margin: 0.5em;}
        .error { background: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.3);}
        .success { background: rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.3);}
    </style>
</head>
<body>


<script>
    const call = (url) => {

        fetch(url, {
            redirect: "manual",
            method: "POST"
        }).then(async response => {
            const className = (response.redirected) ? 'success' : 'error';
            const content = await response.text();
            document.querySelector('body').innerHTML += `<div class='${className}'>${url}<hr /><b>[${response.status}]</b> ${content}</div>`;
        });
    };

    call('target/endpoint');
    call('target/subfolder');

</script>

</body>
</html>

Open http://localhost/…testscript.html in browser and see: the call on target/subfolder changed it’s method. Also when you look at network tab in browser console you can see, that there was 301 forwarding. Why? And more important: How can I circumvent this. My desired behavior is a rewrite without any changing in terms of method to the index.php in disregard of the existence of a folder with that name. In other words: The same what happens when I call target/endpoint for target/subfolder.

I know about -d (and -f) naturally, but that can be used – as far as I know – to to control behavior depending if file or folder exists – so I would assume without these flags the existence of the directory should not play any role, but it does, apparently.

Tags:

2

Answers


  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    With the help of @anuhava I found the right way to solve this. His answer alone did not help, but led me to this thread, and I found out the solution war actually to disable automatic trailing slash in .htaccess:

    DirectorySlash Off

    I had the additional (not mentioned before) requirement to define a exception directory which should be accessible directly. To make this possible as well, I needed the rule of @anuhava and I endet up with this .htaccess:

    DirectorySlash Off

Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes

RewriteEngine on

# add a trailing slash to directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule [^/]$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [L]

# rewrite all calls excpet for exception_dir to index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/target/exception_dir
RewriteRule ^ index.php [QSA,L]

  2. 0

    So first the reason of 301:

    1. You’re requesting a URI /target/subfolder which actually points to an directory on your site.
    2. Since your URI is missing a trailing slash. mod_dir module of Apache comes into action and sends a 301 redirect by making it /target/subfolder/. This is done for security reasons to avoid your directory content being exposed on the web.

    To fix, you can just use call with a trailing slash everywhere it points to a directory:

    call('target/subfolder/');

    But this cumbersome because front end developers won’t always know these specific cases.

    You can use a generic rule in your .htaccess or Apache config to add this trailing slash:

    # add a trailing slash to directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule [^/]$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [L,R=301,NE]

    Make sure this rule is just below RewriteEngine On line and before your existing rules.

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