Why does this htaccess end in a redirection loop?

Question

I got the following htaccess that ends up in a redirection loop:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/int(.*)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /int [R,L]

RewriteRule . index.php [L]

I added the first rule to redirect root requests to a specific sub folder. The second rule comes from WordPress (among others)

I dont see why this should end in a redirection loop. Does the second rewrite trigger another request so that the htaccess is checked again? Thant would explain the loop.

Thank you

Answer 1

Each of your rewrites creates a new request which is reprocessed through the .htaccess. You're rewriting anything doesn't start with /int(.*) to /int. However, anything that starts with /int skips the first rewrite condition and gets rewritten to index.php. Then index.php gets rewriten to /int because it doesn't start with /int(.*). Then /int gets rewritten to index.php... and on ...and on...

BTW: You could prevent the endless loop by adding a second rewrite condition to not trigger your first rewrite rule to when the REQUEST_URI is /index.php

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/int(.*)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /int [R,L]

If forget if you need the leading forward slash in the first rewite condition... try it both ways.