Question

I am using mod_rewrite to send queries to PHP for handling in a CMS. My problem: if the query is the name of a directory, the query that gets sent to PHP is added to the URL.

Here is the code:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule (.*) /process.php\?query=$1 [QSA,NC,L]

So if the user types in

http://example.com/lolcats

mod_rewrite silently redirects to

http://example.com/process.php?query=lolcats

which is great. But if lolcats is a directory, mod_rewrite redirects (NOT silently) to

http://example.com/lolcats/?query=lolcats

adding the query to the end of the original request. Apache still serves the PHP output, but it changes the URL in the user’s address bar.

So I need to stop the query from being added to the request even if the query is the name of a directory.

Answer 1

This is a DirectorySlash issue, where apache redirects with a trailing slash when you try to access a directory.

You can either turn DirectorySlash Off (noting that there is a security warning concerning turning this off), or try to have mod_rewrite handle it preemptively with something like:

# Above your existing rules
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)$ /$1/ [R=301,L]

# and small modification to your existing rule to handle trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /process.php\?query=$1 [QSA,NC,L]

THough if you are routing all existing directories through process.php, the security warning can probably be ignored.