How to make mod_rewrite not perform home directory expansion when using .htaccess

Question

Filepath: /Users/user_name/Sites/example.com

Browseable at: http://localhost/~user_name/example.com/

In a child directory (chrome) I got a .htaccess like this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^rgba\((\d{1,3}%?,\s?\d{1,3}%?,\s?\d{1,3}%?,\s?[0-1]?\.?\d+)\)$ rgba.php?rgba=$1 [PT]

This matches a request like:

http://localhost/~user_name/example.com/chrome/rgba(255,255,255,0.5)

and should rewrite the request to:

http://localhost/~user_name/example.com/chrome/rgba.php?rgba=(255,255,255,0.5)

I put the rgba.php in the chrome directory. Still I get this error msg:

The requested URL /Users/user_name/Sites/example.com/chrome/rgba.php was not found on this server.

I read the part in the manual about Home directory expansion and the [PT] flag but it makes no difference.

If i put up a vhost pointing to the example.com directory it works. I would like it to work both ways =P

So how do I do it?

I run Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) on a Mac OS X

EDIT AllowOverride is set to All for the users Sites directory. If it wasn´t the rewrite shouldn´t have worked at all.

I'm facing a similar issue. Any chance that you happened to find a fix to this? — Saurabh Nanda, Feb 27 '12 at 16:55
@SaurabhNanda and OP, check my answer. Hopefully it helps you, or at least someone else. — Colin Dunklau, May 31 '12 at 20:06

Colin Dunklau · Answer 1 · 2012-06-01T15:47:19.520

Holy god that was frustrating. But I have it working.

I tried a bunch of stuff. I thought that the PT flag on the RewriteRule would fix it, but nope.

I still don't know how to stop the home directory expansion, but I figured out a workaround. Just before the RewriteRule, use RewriteBase /~user_name/example.com/chrome/. This overrides the rewrite's prefix (log entry from my config):

<SNIP> (2) [perdir /Users/colin/Sites/ajaxtest/] trying to replace prefix /Users/colin/Sites/ajaxtest/ with /~colin/ajaxtest/

UPDATE

This solution works somewhat, but it appears to make the rewrite engine trigger twice... once for the internal redirect, and again afterwards. I ended up just using a VirtualHost like the other submitter.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 14:16

1

I spent half a day wracking my brains on this and the only solution I could find was to create a new VirtualHost with the DocumentRoot set to the user's home directory.

answered Feb 28 '12 at 14:16

Saurabh Nanda

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score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 14 '10 at 13:13

-1

Allow overrides in you configuration file for your home directories.

answered Dec 14 '10 at 13:13

Andrew Sledge

10,163
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This is an incorrect answer. Allowing overrides also does not solve it. – Saurabh Nanda Feb 28 '12 at 14:15

How to make mod_rewrite *not* perform home directory expansion when using .htaccess

3 Answers3

How to make mod_rewrite not perform home directory expansion when using .htaccess