Remove server.php using htaccess got error 500 - php

Question

I have a website that can be accessed in two ways:
http://localhost/public/blog
http://localhost/server.php/blog
I use the code below to remove the "public" from the url, and its work.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
So I tried to change public/ to server.php/ from above code. But it's does not work.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ server.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
Server return error code 500.
The server log log reports:
[Wed Sep 04 01:06:53.801523 2019] [core:error] [pid 546] [client
182.253.16.222:36164] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use
'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use
'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
So my expectation from the second code is address "http://localhost/server.php/blog" can be access without server.php in there (http://localhost/blog).

Answer 1

Both examples you showed have valid syntax and should work, but you seem to still have problems, which suggests that the two different redirect patterns are interfering with each other somehow, or that you have a circular redirection.
Validating if your configuration works correctly
I've just set up a minimalistic apache project for experimenting with rewrite rules: https://github.com/rpagliuca/apache-rewrite-minimalist-environment
In that project, I tested out a configuration very similar to what you described:
# Apache virtual host config file: vhost.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
RewriteEngine On
LogLevel alert rewrite:trace6
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /server.php$1 [L]
</VirtualHost>
Also, I've added 2 different PHP files to the project:
# File 1: server.php
Handled by server.php<br/>
URI: <?= $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?>
The second file is similar:
# File 1: server.php
Handled by index.php<br/>
URI: <?= $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?>
So I started the project with docker-compose up --build, found out the IP of the container using docker ps and docker inspect, and tested out the following URL: http://192.168.16.2/blog. I got the following output on the browser:
Handled by server.php
URI: /blog
This test shows that this RewriteRule is valid in simple cases (where there is no circular redirection -- for scenarios with circular redirection, please read #Anonymous answer).
If I comment out the line RewriteEngine On line, I get a 404 error on the URL http://192.168.16.2/blog, which supports the conclusion that the redirect rule is indeed working. Also, index.php is only accessible when the RewriteEngine On is commented out. Otherwise, when the redirect engine is enabled, I get the following output:
Handled by server.php
URI: /index.php
The ultimate solution
You might have noticed the line LogLevel alert rewrite:trace6 in the vhost.conf file above.
That line enables debugging for your rewrite rules for Apache 2.4 or later. With that, you can fix your future redirect rules errors with way more ease and speed.
Whenever I run my server with docker-compose up --build, and hit the /blog URI, I get the following output:
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121396 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] init rewrite engine with requested uri /blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121497 2019] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/blog'
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121534 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] rewrite '/blog' -> '/server.php/blog'
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | 192.168.16.2:80 192.168.16.1 - - [04/Sep/2019:12:27:02 +0000] "GET /blog HTTP/1.1" 200 267 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/75.0.3770.80 Safari/537.36"
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121550 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] local path result: /server.php/blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121618 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/server.php/blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.121630 2019] [rewrite:trace1] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7737780a0/initial] go-ahead with /var/www/html/server.php/blog [OK]
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122014 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] init rewrite engine with requested uri /blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122032 2019] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] applying pattern '^(.*)$' to uri '/blog'
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122048 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] rewrite '/blog' -> '/server.php/blog'
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122060 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] local path result: /server.php/blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122079 2019] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] prefixed with document_root to /var/www/html/server.php/blog
app_1_d7cddb74e8bd | [Wed Sep 04 12:27:02.122091 2019] [rewrite:trace1] [pid 17] mod_rewrite.c(483): [client 192.168.16.1:49620] 192.168.16.1 - - [192.168.16.2/sid#7fa770113d98][rid#7fa7736c30a0/subreq] go-ahead with /var/www/html/server.php/blog [OK]
You can follow theses logs, and easily find out where is happening your circular redirection or any other misintended behaviours.
After fixing it, remember to turn off mod_rewrite debugging, especially on production environments.

Answer 2

You’re redirecting every URL, but you should only redirect when server.php is missing.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^server\.php($|/)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ server.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>