Using RewriteRule to redirect any request to PHP script without external redirects

Question

I use WampServer (Apache/PHP/MySQL) and I have the following files in my www directory:

• www [dir]
  • test [dir]
  • index.php [file]
  • .htaccess [file]

I want to pass all URI requests as a parameter to index.php without causing any external redirects (location changes in client browser). So I tried to use the following rule:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?path=$1 [nocase,qsappend,end]

Which works quite good, except when the URI is /test, in which case an external redirect changes the location to:

/test/?path=test

How can I make sure the external redirect does NOT happen even if the directory of the same name as the URI exists?

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Expected result:

• Original URI request: /test
• Internal redirect: index.php?path=test
• External redirect: none

Actual result:

• Original URI request: /test
• Internal redirect: index.php?path=test
• External redirect: /test/?path=test

The ideal solution would be universal and would not apply only to test directory, but to any directory.

Answer 1

Ok the problem seems to be a conflict between mod_rewrite and mod_dir. Possible solutions are:

1. Disable mod_dir

2. Put this to .htaccess:

   <IfModule mod_dir.c>
        DirectorySlash Off
   </IfModule>
   

For more details about how mod_rewrite and mod_dir interact, this answer has some excellent info. And why the external redirect is necessary is explained in docs (Trailing Slash Problem).

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Related links

• DirectorySlash documentation
• More mod_rewrite/mod_dir shenanigans