mod_rewrite does not work as expected when "RailsAllowModRewrite on"

[Jonathan Julian]

# in server config
RailsAllowModRewrite on
# in Directory block
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule alice.html bob.html

request /alice.html

from the rewrite_log, the rewrite has succeeded...(level 3)
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2008:15:26:07 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8c5450/initial] (3) [perdir /] strip per-dir prefix: /Users/
jjulian/trunk/public/alice.html -> Users/jjulian/trunk/public/
alice.html
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2008:15:26:07 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8c5450/initial] (3) [perdir /] applying pattern 'alice.html' to
uri 'Users/jjulian/trunk/public/alice.html'
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2008:15:26:07 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8c5450/initial] (2) [perdir /] rewrite 'Users/jjulian/trunk/
public/alice.html' -> 'bob.html'
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2008:15:26:07 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8c5450/initial] (3) [perdir /] add per-dir prefix: bob.html -> /
bob.html
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2008:15:26:07 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8c5450/initial] (1) [perdir /] internal redirect with /bob.html
[INTERNAL REDIRECT]

but, in the error_log, the original request was sent to Rails (level
debug)
[16340:Hooks.cpp:370] Processing HTTP request: /alice.html

I expect Rails to get a request for /bob.html. Is this a bug?
Shouldn't Passenger handle requests at the end of the chain *after*
they are rewritten?

Note - with "RailsAllowModRewrite off", no rewriting at all occurs.
TIA

[Jonathan Julian]

Where this breaks in the real world is here:

RailsAllowModRewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/system/maintenance.html -f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !maintenance.html
RewriteRule ^.*$ %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/system/maintenance.html [L]

When the maint html page exists, all requests will be rewritten to "/
system/maintenance.html". Passenger should then see that those files
exist on the fs and serve then without invoking Rails. The bug is that
Passenger is using the *original* request URI instead of the rewritten
one. This also breaks with URIs like server-status and server-info, if
you have those features enabled.

On Apr 14, 3:37 pm, Jonathan Julian <jonathan.m.jul...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Jonathan Julian]

OK, the system/maintenance.html example can be made to work - simply
by putting it *outside* of the Directory block, in the server config.

There is still an issue where Passenger is sending the *original* uri
to Rails instead of the rewritten one. More examples below:

# in server config, not in Directory
RailsAllowModRewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/alice$ %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/bob
RewriteRule ^/server-status$ - [L,H=server-status]

request /alice

127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /alice
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/alice$' to uri '/alice'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (2) rewrite '/alice' -> '/Users/jjulian/trunk/
public/bob'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/server-status$' to uri '/
Users/jjulian/trunk/public/bob'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (2) local path result: /Users/jjulian/trunk/
public/bob
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:26 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (1) go-ahead with /Users/jjulian/trunk/public/bob
[OK]

yet, Rails gets /alice. I think it should get /bob
[18623:Hooks.cpp:370] Processing HTTP request: /alice

request /server-status

127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /
server-status
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/alice$' to uri '/server-
status'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/server-status$' to uri '/
server-status'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (2) remember /server-status to have Content-
handler 'server-status'
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (1) pass through /server-status
localhost - - [15/Apr/2008:11:21:48 --0400] [localhost/sid#80bbc0]
[rid#8cd850/initial] (1) force filename /Users/jjulian/trunk/public/
server-status to have the Content-handler 'server-status'

Rails gets this request. I think it should not, since a separate
Content-handler was set on it.
[18624:Hooks.cpp:370] Processing HTTP request: /server-status


On Apr 14, 6:15 pm, Jonathan Julian <jonathan.m.jul...@gmail.com>

[Patrick Quinn-Graham]

I can confirm that I'm seeing this behaviour as well, and that I
consider it a bug.

My rails app relies heavily on httpd rewrites (currently deployed as a
bunch of mongrels behind lighttpd) to allow the same app to provide
different content to different domains - this makes Passenger unusable
for me right now.

On Apr 15, 4:27 pm, Jonathan Julian <jonathan.m.jul...@gmail.com>

[RSL]

I've found a solution to this problem. The key is that there's a
slight difference in how the RewriteRule has to be specified in the
conf files. You can read the whole story here http://www.webmasterworld.com/apache/3335621.htm
but short answer is that you need to include the leading / in the
regex of the rule. Here's [basically] my vhost config which completely
works [you have no idea how excited I am by that fact] and hopefully
can serve as a good example.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName backend.com
ServerAlias proba.com altra.com tertia.net
DocumentRoot /path/to/app/public

RewriteEngine On

# Basic content redirection
RewriteRule ^/$ /_sites/%{HTTP_HOST}/cache/index.html [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/([^.]+)$ /_sites/%{HTTP_HOST}/cache/$1.html [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/([^.]+).atom$ /_sites/%{HTTP_HOST}/cache/$1.atom
[QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/([^.]+).xml$ /_sites/%{HTTP_HOST}/cache/$1.xml
[QSA,L]

# Asset redirection
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !backend.com
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} (files|images|javascripts|
stylesheets)/.*
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^/(files|images|javascripts|stylesheets)/(.*)$ /_sites/%
{HTTP_HOST}/$1/$2 [QSA,L]
</VirtualHost>

Rock on with yr easy deploying selves! :)

RSL

[RSL]

UPDATE: I was doing some tweaking and discovered that you don't even
need to enable RailsAllowModRewrite to get this as long as you're
putting yr rewrite rules in the conf files.

RSL