I have configured an apache virtualhost to point localhost to /var/www/html/mysite/public which contains a htaccess file rewriting all request to handle.php in the same dir, I know the htaccess file works because syntax errors in it cause internal server errors to appear
But when I go to localhost/ I get the apache test page, I enabled LogLevel alert rewrite:trace3 to see what was going on and the log shows that it's trying to rewrite the request to handle.php but... not? What is going on here
handle.php just contains die('test'); so I'd know if it actually used that file
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248162 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca71a60/initial] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/html/mysite/public/ ->
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248270 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca71a60/initial] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] applying pattern '^(.*)/$' to uri ''
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248298 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca71a60/initial] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/html/mysite/public/ ->
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248312 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca71a60/initial] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] applying pattern '^' to uri ''
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248362 2018] [rewrite:trace1] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca71a60/initial] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] pass through /var/www/html/mysite/public/
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248816 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/html/mysite/public/index.php -> index.php
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248840 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] applying pattern '^' to uri 'index.php'
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248907 2018] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] rewrite 'index.php' -> 'handle.php'
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248922 2018] [rewrite:trace3] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] add per-dir prefix: handle.php -> /var/www/html/mysite/public/handle.php
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248936 2018] [rewrite:trace2] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] trying to replace prefix /var/www/html/mysite/public/ with /
[Mon Dec 03 09:23:09.248949 2018] [rewrite:trace1] [pid 183] mod_rewrite.c(482): [client snip:35984] snip - - [localhost/sid#55879ca14140][rid#55879ca77a90/subreq] [perdir /var/www/html/mysite/public/] internal redirect with /handle.php [INTERNAL REDIRECT]
This was because my apache was in a docker container and docker was preventing apache reading dirs that didn't exist, strace was extremely useful in debugging this. See https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/1295