Apache website conversion from alias to virtualhost – PHP Versions

I have to take over an internal Web server that has been configured by a colleague who is no longer there. Our developpers team asks me to convert applications URLs from an Alias to a Virtualhosts (subdomain naming) system. For instance:

https://srv-intra.mydomain.fr/basecolldev

should become

https://basecolldev.mydomain.fr

Environment specifications:

• Linux OpenSUSE Leap 15.3
• Server version: Apache/2.4.51 (Linux/SUSE)
• PHP 7.4.6 (cli) ( NTS )

Issue description: I can connect to https://basecolldev.mydomain.fr despite some 404 errors showing in access_log file (see at the end of the post). I have then a 404 error page when clicking the login button that redirects to https://basecolldev.mydomain.fr/login. The login page is found and displayed properly when I manually modify the URL to https://basecolldev.mydomain.fr/index.php/login. This means that /index.php is not required for home page connection but is for browsing the website. I need to permanently prevent the /index.php suffix to show up in URL.

I describe below what I have configured so far and what remains unfunctionnal.

I have first created a new vhost file /etc/apache2/vhost.d/basecolldev-ssl.conf :

<VirtualHost basecolldev.mydomain.fr:443>

    DocumentRoot "/var/www/BaseCollDev/public"
    ServerName basecolldev.mydomain.fr
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/basecolldev-error_log
    TransferLog /var/log/apache2/basecolldev-access_log
    LogLevel alert rewrite:trace8

    <Directory /var/www/BaseCollDev/public>
         #Order allow,deny
         #allow from all
         #AllowOverride All
         Require all granted
         Options -Indexes -Includes -ExecCGI -FollowSymlinks
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

I have then commented the lines related to the application Directory tag in file /etc/apache2/default-server.conf :

DocumentRoot "/var/www"

<Directory "/var/www">
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    <IfModule !mod_access_compat.c>
            Require all granted
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_access_compat.c>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </IfModule>
</Directory>

Alias /icons/ "/usr/share/apache2/icons/"
Alias /phpmyadmin "/srv/www/htdocs/phpMyAdmin"

<Directory "/usr/share/apache2/icons">
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    <IfModule !mod_access_compat.c>
        Require all granted
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_access_compat.c>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </IfModule>
</Directory>


#<Directory "/var/www/BaseCollDev/public">
#        AllowOverride All
#        Require all granted
#</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/srv/www/cgi-bin/"

<Directory "/srv/www/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options +ExecCGI -Includes
    <IfModule !mod_access_compat.c>
        Require all granted
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_access_compat.c>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </IfModule>
</Directory>

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    UserDir public_html
    Include /etc/apache2/mod_userdir.conf
</IfModule>


IncludeOptional /etc/apache2/conf.d/*.conf

IncludeOptional /etc/apache2/conf.d/apache2-manual?conf

Extract from /var/log/apache2/basecolldev-access_log file relating to a connection to the home page:

10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 54206
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/runtime.d94b3b43.js HTTP/1.1" 200 1505
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/app.13d64c6c.js HTTP/1.1" 200 236
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/2.9935185b.css HTTP/1.1" 200 64639
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/app.6cefaab5.css HTTP/1.1" 200 163752
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/2.28b18d57.js HTTP/1.1" 200 261268
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/images/logoEdVBlanc.png HTTP/1.1" 200 6579
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /_wdt/b07606 HTTP/1.1" 404 1280
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:31 +0200] "GET /build/fonts/fa-solid-900.e8a427e1.woff2 HTTP/1.1" 200 78196
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:32 +0200] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 1280
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:32 +0200] "GET /_wdt/b07606 HTTP/1.1" 404 1280
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:33 +0200] "GET /_wdt/b07606 HTTP/1.1" 404 1280
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:34 +0200] "GET /_wdt/b07606 HTTP/1.1" 404 1280
10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:02:35 +0200] "GET /_wdt/b07606 HTTP/1.1" 404 1280

Extract from /var/log/apache2/basecolldev-access_log file relating to a connection to the login page:

10.9.4.140 - - [03/Jun/2022:11:03:47 +0200] "GET /login HTTP/1.1" 404 1280

I see no logs in /var/log/apache2/basecolldev-error_log file.

I enclose .htaccess files contents if necessary.

File /var/www/.htaccess :

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

File /var/www/BaseCollDev/public/.htaccess :

DirectoryIndex index.php

<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
 Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}::$0 ^(/.+)/(.*)::2$
    RewriteRule .* - [E=BASE:%1]

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .+
    RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%0]

    RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} =""
    RewriteRule ^index.php(?:/(.*)|$) %{ENV:BASE}/$1 [R=301,L]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ %{ENV:BASE}/index.php [L]
 </IfModule>

 <IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
     <IfModule mod_alias.c>
        RedirectMatch 307 ^/$ /index.php/
     </IfModule>
 </IfModule>