htaccess RewriteCond: Why doesn't a server variable match itself? - regex

Question

Perhaps a better question would be, is there any way to use server variables in the matching string?
For example, I can't understand why this fails to match:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} %{REQUEST_URI}
First, two points.
I know this condition servers no purpose as is.
I know I have poor knowledge of both htaccess and regex.
What I want is to generically turn this URL www.example.com/dir/path/info into www.example.com/dir?foo=/path/info for bootstrapping.
I tried to accomplish this by removing the extra path info from the deepest actual directory in the URL. I was trying this code to test the premise:
RewriteEngine On
Options -Multiviews -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
RewriteBase /
DirectorySlash Off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)%{PATH_INFO}
RewriteRule ^(.+?) index.php?dir=%1&path=%2 [L]
No luck. To troubleshoot I reduced it to this:
RewriteCond %{PATH_INFO} (.+)
RewriteRule ^(.+?) index.php?dir=%1 [L]
As expected the query returned foo='/path/info'
So I tried this which I thought would match no matter what:
RewriteCond %{PATH_INFO} %{PATH_INFO}
That failed so as a last attempt, I tried capturing the string:
RewriteCond %{PATH_INFO} (.+)
RewriteCond %{PATH_INFO} %1
That also failed to find a match which has me baffled. %1 should be the complete %{PATH_INFO} string. How could it not match itself???
I don't think it matters but I'm using XAMPP on Windows7 in FastCGI.

Answer 1

Rewrite pattern params only allow regex (tho Condpattern also has special flags for tests and comparisons):
RewriteCond TestString CondPattern
RewriteRule Pattern Substitution
Server variables like %{REQUEST_URI} can only be used in Teststring and Substitution. The following docs outline this usage:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule
If this will go in your main .htaccess, perhaps try:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !index\.php$
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/(.+)$ index.php?dir=/$1&path=/$2 [L]
Two more Example:
Sample1
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(.+/)?index.php(/.+) index.php?dir=/$1&path=$2 [R,L]
Sample2
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^((.+/)?index.php)(/.+) $1?path=$3 [R,L]
Sample3
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(.+/)?(.+\.php)(/.+) $1$2?foo=$3 [R,L]
these all do external rewrite so you can see result in the browser address. To revert to internal rewrite, just remove [R] flag

Answer 2

Ok, I found a way to accomplish this goal.
Basically I was trying to compare two server variables. htaccess won't do that. I wanted to extract part of a "pretty" url which points to an actual file or folder. The variable ${SCRIPT_URL} should do that, but it is either depreciated or not reliable. The work around is to put both variables in the test string and use a regex back reference to find the point of duplication.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}%{PATH_INFO} (.*?)(/.+)\2$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %1.php?strappath=%2 [QSA,END]
In the above example %1 will be the uri of the file and %2 will be the remaining path after the URI, duplicating %{PATH_INFO}.
Follow with this rule for when there is no extra path info
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+?)$ $1.php [QSA,END]
If no .php file is found, I want the index of that directory and add the un-found file name to the pathinfo. This is a bit trickier.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} ^(.*)(/.+)$
RewriteCond %1 -d
RewriteCond %1/index.php -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}%{PATH_INFO} ^(.*?)(/.+)\2$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/.+)(/.+)?$
RewriteCond %1 ^(.*)(/.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %1/index.php?strappath=%2%{PATH_INFO} [QSA,END]
The above section fails to catch urls that point directly to an existing folder with an index.php, so to catch those:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}/index.php -f
RewriteCond ^(.+)$ $1/index.php [QSA,END]
I doubt anyone ever finds this useful but I've seen variations of this question asked over and over with no working solution given.