How to debug htaccess RewriteRule not working

Question

I have a RewriteRule in a  htaccess file that isn t doing anything  How do I troubleshoot this    How can I verify if the  htaccess file is even being read and obeyed by Apache  Can I write an echo  it is working  message  if I do write it  where would that line be echoed out  If the  htaccess file isn t being used  how can I make Apache use it  If the  htaccess is being used but my RewriteRule still isn t having an effect  what more can I do to debug

User · Answer

The  Enter some junk value  answer didn t do the trick for me  my site was continuing to load despite the entered junk   Instead I added the following line to the top of the  htaccess file   deny from all   This will quickly let you know if  htaccess is being picked up or not  If the  htaccess is being used  the files in that folder won t load at all

User · Answer

Enter some junk value into your  htaccess  e g  foo bar  sakjnaskljdnas any keyword not recognized by htaccess and visit your URL  If it is working  you should get a      500 Internal Server Error      Internal Server Error      The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request       I suggest you to put it soon after RewriteEngine on     Since you are on your machine  I presume you have access to apache  conf file   open the  conf file  and look for a line similar to   LoadModule rewrite module modules mod rewrite so   If it is commented     uncomment and restart apache     To log rewrite  RewriteEngine On RewriteLog   path to rewrite log  RewriteLogLevel 9   Put the above 3 lines in your virtualhost  restart the httpd    RewriteLogLevel 9 Using a high value for Level will slow down your Apache server dramatically  Use the rewriting logfile at a Level greater than 2 only for debugging   Level 9 will log almost every rewritelog detail     UPDATE  Things have changed in Apache 2 4   FROM Upgrading to 2 4 from 2 2     The RewriteLog and RewriteLogLevel directives have been removed  This functionality is now provided by configuring the appropriate level of logging for the mod rewrite module using the LogLevel directive  See also the mod rewrite logging section    For more on LogLevel  refer LogLevel Directive  you can accomplish  RewriteLog   path to rewrite log    in this manner now  LogLevel debug rewrite module debug

User · Answer

Why not put some junk in your  htaccess file and try to reload apache   If apache fails to start you know its working  Remove the junk then reload apache if it loads congrats you configured  htaccess correctly

User · Answer

Generally any change in the  htaccess should have visible effects  If no effect  check your configuration apache files  something like    lt Directory    gt              AllowOverride None          lt  Directory gt    Should be changed to   AllowOverride All   And you ll be able to change directives in  htaccess files

User · Answer

If you have access to apache bin directory you can use   httpd -M to check loaded modules first     info module  shared   isapi module  shared   log config module  shared   cache disk module  shared   mime module  shared   negotiation module  shared   proxy module  shared   proxy ajp module  shared   rewrite module  shared   setenvif module  shared   socache shmcb module  shared   ssl module  shared   status module  shared   version module  shared   php5 module  shared     After that simple directives like Options -Indexes or deny from all will solidify that  htaccess are working correctly

User · Answer

To answer the first question of the three asked  a simple way to see if the  htaccess file is working or not is to trigger a custom error  at the top of the  htaccess file   ErrorDocument 200  Hello  This is your  htaccess file talking   RewriteRule   -  L R 200    On to your second question  if the  htaccess file is not being read it is possible that the server s main Apache configuration has AllowOverride set to None  Apache s documentation has troubleshooting tips for that and other cases that may be preventing the  htaccess from taking effect   Finally  to answer your third question  if you need to debug specific variables you are referencing in your rewrite rule or are using an expression that you want to evaluate independently of the rule you can do the following   Output the variable you are referencing to make sure it has the value you are expecting   ErrorDocument 200  Request    THE REQUEST  Referrer    HTTP REFERER  Host    HTTP HOST   RewriteRule   -  L R 200    Test the expression independently by putting it in an  lt If gt  Directive  This allows you to make sure your expression is written properly or matching when you expect it to    lt If    REQUEST URI      word    gt      ErrorDocument 200  Your expression is priceless       RewriteRule   -  L R 200   lt  If gt    Happy  htaccess debugging

User · Answer

Perhaps a more logical method would be to create a file  e g  test html   add some content and then try to set it as the index page   DirectoryIndex test html   For the most part  the  htaccess rule will override the Apache configuration where working at the directory file level

User · Answer

To test your htaccess rewrite rules  simply fill in the url that you re applying the rules to  place the contents of your htaccess on the larger input area and press  Test  button    http   htaccess mwl be

[apache] How to debug .htaccess RewriteRule not working

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