Difference in .htaccess behaviour

Question

I have finished developing a micro app with Phalcon and tried to move it to production server, but have encountered some problems with .htaccess rules.

Directory layout on the serwer is like this :

/var/www
|- .htaccess
|- redmine/
|- wordpress/
|- (other dirs)
|- MyApp/
   |- .htaccess
   |- public/
      |- .htaccess
      |- api.php

/var/www/.htaccess :

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(redmine|MyApp) [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

/var/www/MyApp/.htaccess :

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.gif|\.jpg|\.png|\.mp3|\.ods|\.csv|\.xls)$ [NC]
    RewriteRule  ^$ public/    [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.gif|\.jpg|\.png|\.mp3|\.ods|\.csv|\.xls)$ [NC]
    RewriteRule  (.*) public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

/var/www/MyApp/public/.htaccess :

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ api.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

I'm really new to all this. The top-most .htaccess was not setup by me, and frankly I don't know what is going on in there. The others are based on Phalcon tutorials.

Everything worked on my local machine, but stopped when I uploaded it. I turned on logging in both places.

Local log :

[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] add path info postfix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api -> /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] strip per-dir prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api/poeci -> api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] applying pattern '^$' to uri 'api/poeci'
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] add path info postfix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api -> /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] strip per-dir prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/api/poeci -> api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] applying pattern '(.*)' to uri 'api/poeci'
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] RewriteCond: input='/MyApp/api/poeci' pattern='!(\\.gif|\\.jpg|\\.png|\\.mp3|\\.ods|\\.csv|\\.xls)$' [NC] => matched
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] rewrite 'api/poeci' -> 'public/api/poeci'
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] add per-dir prefix: public/api/poeci -> /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] strip document_root prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api/poeci -> /MyApp/public/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/] internal redirect with /MyApp/public/api/poeci [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] add path info postfix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api -> /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api/poeci -> api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'api/poeci'
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api' pattern='!-d' => matched
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api' pattern='!-f' => matched
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] rewrite 'api/poeci' -> 'api.php?_url=/api/poeci'
split uri=api.php?_url=/api/poeci -> uri=api.php, args=_url=/api/poeci
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] add per-dir prefix: api.php -> /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] strip document_root prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php -> /MyApp/public/api.php
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] internal redirect with /MyApp/public/api.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php -> api.php
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'api.php'
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-d' => matched
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-f' => not-matched
[perdir /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/] pass through /Users/Losiowaty/MyApp/public/api.php

Remote log :

[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] add path info postfix: /var/www/MyApp/api -> /var/www/MyApp/api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/MyApp/api/poeci -> api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] applying pattern '^$' to uri 'api/poeci'
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] add path info postfix: /var/www/MyApp/api -> /var/www/MyApp/api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/MyApp/api/poeci -> api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] applying pattern '(.*)' to uri 'api/poeci'
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] RewriteCond: input='/MyApp/api/poeci' pattern='!(\\.gif|\\.jpg|\\.png|\\.mp3|\\.ods|\\.csv|\\.xls)$' [NC] => matched
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] rewrite 'api/poeci' -> 'public/api/poeci'
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] add per-dir prefix: public/api/poeci -> /var/www/MyApp/public/api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] strip document_root prefix: /var/www/MyApp/public/api/poeci -> /MyApp/public/api/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/] internal redirect with /MyApp/public/api/poeci [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] add path info postfix: /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php -> /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php/poeci -> api.php/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'api.php/poeci'
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-d' => matched
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-f' => not-matched
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] pass through /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] add path info postfix: /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php -> /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php/poeci -> api.php/poeci
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri 'api.php/poeci'
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-d' => matched
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/MyApp/public/api.php' pattern='!-f' => not-matched
[perdir /var/www/MyApp/public/] pass through /var/www/MyApp/public/api.php
[perdir /var/www/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/poeci -> poeci
[perdir /var/www/] applying pattern '^index\\.php$' to uri 'poeci'
[perdir /var/www/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/poeci -> poeci
[perdir /var/www/] applying pattern '.' to uri 'poeci'
[perdir /var/www/] RewriteCond: input='/poeci' pattern='!(redmine|MyApp)' [NC] => matched
[perdir /var/www/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/poeci' pattern='!-f' => matched
[perdir /var/www/] RewriteCond: input='/var/www/poeci' pattern='!-d' => matched
[perdir /var/www/] rewrite 'poeci' -> '/index.php'
[perdir /var/www/] trying to replace prefix /var/www/ with /
[perdir /var/www/] internal redirect with /index.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]

The differences begin with the first line with [perdir (...)] ending with /public/. I don't understand why it adds .php and why the !-f rule doesn't match on the remote server.

Local server :
OSX 10.9.3, MAMP 3.0.4, Apache 2.2.26

Remote server :
Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.9, Apache 2.2.16

I wonder whether this is caused by the additional .htaccess file on the remote, or by the difference in Apache version.

I'd appreciate some explanation as to what's going on and any directions on where to look for answers.

Cheers!

Answer 1

This looks like it may be caused by multiviews. In both htaccess files inside MyApp, add this (above your rules, but anywhere is fine):

Options -Multiviews

Note that because api.php exists, a PATH INFO url like: /MyApp/api.php/something will fail the !-f check.