Rewrite an Alias directory

Question

I'm trying to first use an Alias folder to store my project files in a different location than my DocumentRoot, and then execute a mod_rewrite on this request. However it doesn't seem to parse the .htaccess file.

This is the content of my Alias file:

Alias /test F:/Path/To/Project

<Directory F:/Path/To/Project>
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

This is my .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule .* index.php [NC] [PT]

When I remove the Alias everything works fine.

Answer 1

mod_alias ALWAYS takes precedence over mod_rewrite. You can never override a mod_alias directive with mod_rewrite.

The AliasMatch directive may help you in this case.

Answer 2

Here is a solution that may address some scenarios where you are trying to use alias and rewrite but can't because they conflict.

Suppose your DocumentRoot for a particular application is /var/www/example.com/myapp, and you have the following basic directory structure, where public requests are either for files in public (e.g., a css file), or are otherwise routed through index.php.

myapp/
|- private_library/
   |- private_file.php
|- private_configs/
   |- private_file.php
|- public/
   |- index.php
   |- css/
      |- styles.css

The objective is to only serve content inside public_webroot, however, the URL should be example.com/myapp not example.com/myapp/public.

The following might seem like it should work:

DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
Alias /myapp /var/www/example.com/myapp/public
<Directory /var/www/example.com/myapp/public>
    # (or in this dir's .htaccess)
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /public
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [QSA,PT]
</Directory>

But this will lead to an infinite loop if you request a URL for a file that doesn't exist (i.e., one that should be routed through index.php).

One solution is to not use mod_alias, and instead just use mod_rewrite in your application's root directory, like this:

DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
<Directory /var/www/example.com/myapp>
    # (or in this dir's .htaccess)
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule   (.*) public/$1 [L]
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/example.com/myapp/public>
    # (or in this dir's .htaccess)
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [QSA,L]
</Directory>

And that's all!