mod_rewrite again

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Rick DeNatale

23 Mar 2005 23 Mar '05

8:38 p.m.

Add me to the list of folks pulling their hair out trying to get prettier urls to work with mediawiki. After upgrading to 1.4.0 I decided to try to prettify my urls. I hadn't tried actually rewriting the incoming urls using mod_rewrite under my previous 1.3.x installation, but I swear that manually entering a url of .../wiki/index.php/Title used to work. I've set up rewrite rules for the wiki directory, and It looks like the rewriting of a url like http://www.mydomainname/wiki/Frodo to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php/Frodo is working but then the url itself isn't being properly processed. As I say, before I upgraded to 1.4.0 manual use of the resulting url used to work. Yesterday, I couldn't get the alternative of rewriting to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php?Frodo to work either, but today, for some mysterious reason it seems to work. I hate it when things don't work and I don't understand why, but I hate it even more when they start to work and I still don't understand why, since it's not good for the confidence in things not breaking in the future. Anyway, any ideas why the index.php/articlename form used to work in 1.3 and doesn't in 1.4?

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Jan Steinman

23 Mar 23 Mar

9:05 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

On 23 Mar 2005, at 12:38, Rick DeNatale wrote:

...

Add me to the list of folks pulling their hair out trying to get prettier urls to work with mediawiki.

I'm assuming you're using Apache, and have access to at least an included portion of httpd.conf. Have you tried using Alias instead of RewriteRule? I tried both under 1.4b5, and found Alias was slightly faster, and MUCH easier to understand. The RewriteRule technique may have some advantage I don't understand, which probably means I don't need it! I have not tried it under 1.4 yet. I had to disable it in order to get at the config directory -- another good thing about pretty URLs. (And also, it's more likely to get crawled -- a mixed blessing.) :::: We're in a giant car heading toward a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour, arguing over who has the best seat. -- David Suzuki :::: Jan Steinman <http://www.Bytesmiths.com/Van>

Ira Abramov

28 Mar 28 Mar

7:49 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] Re: mod_rewrite again

Quoting Jan Steinman, from the post of Wed, 23 Mar:

...

Have you tried using Alias instead of RewriteRule? I tried both under 1.4b5, and found Alias was slightly faster, and MUCH easier to understand. The RewriteRule technique may have some advantage I don't understand, which probably means I don't need it!

well, it is definitely faster and offeres less pitfalls than the all-powerful mod_rewrite, but there's one thing it won't do (correct me if wrong!) - it won't let you use page names in the root, i.e. get rid of the /w/ or /wiki/ or what have you. I think I raised that once. I'm not saying your setup is bad ofcourse, it's a misfeature in Apache... -- SpamBot collectors' item Ira Abramov http://ira.abramov.org/email/

Brion Vibber

23 Mar 23 Mar

9:10 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

Rick DeNatale wrote:

...

I've set up rewrite rules for the wiki directory, and It looks like the rewriting of a url like http://www.mydomainname/wiki/Frodo to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php/Frodo

That's a bad idea; covering the real wiki files with a virtual rewrite area usually leads to conflicts and loops. You should *always* keep the rewrite areas at separate locations from your real files (for instance we have /wiki and /w on Wikipedia).

...

is working but then the url itself isn't being properly processed. As I say, before I upgraded to 1.4.0 manual use of the resulting url used to work.

Can you describe what's going wrong? Is there an error message? Wrong page? Failure to load? Anything in the error logs?

...

Yesterday, I couldn't get the alternative of rewriting to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php?Frodo

This would never work. Try: index.php?title=Frodo

...

Anyway, any ideas why the index.php/articlename form used to work in 1.3 and doesn't in 1.4?

Did you change your PHP installation from the apache 1.x module or apache2handler module to CGI, FastCGI, or apache2filter? Can you confirm that you don't have some other problem? Have you made sure that you're not rewriting the skin files into wiki pages or some other problem? -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

Rick DeNatale

10:18 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:10:32 -0800, Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com> wrote:

...

Rick DeNatale wrote:

I've set up rewrite rules for the wiki directory, and It looks like the rewriting of a url like http://www.mydomainname/wiki/Frodo to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php/Frodo

Okay, although I don't have any loop. Just so I understand you are suggesting that since the wiki is installed at .../wiki I should use urls of the form .../w/PageTitle and rewrite them to .../wiki/index.php/PageTitle

...

is working but then the url itself isn't being properly processed. As I say, before I upgraded to 1.4.0 manual use of the resulting url used to work.

Can you describe what's going wrong? Is there an error message? Wrong page? Failure to load? Anything in the error logs?

I'm just getting a 404 Object Not Found http reply and the error log has an entry File does not exist: /var/www/html/wiki/index.php/Astronaut:John_Glenn where Astronaut:John Glenn is the article title. http://www.denhaven2.homeip.net/wiki/index.php?Astronaut:John Glenn works fine.

...

Yesterday, I couldn't get the alternative of rewriting to http://www.mydomainname/wiki/index.php?Frodo

This would never work. Try: index.php?title=Frodo

Yeah, that was just a typo in my posting. I was rewriting it to ?title=...

...

Anyway, any ideas why the index.php/articlename form used to work in 1.3 and doesn't in 1.4?

Did you change your PHP installation from the apache 1.x module or apache2handler module to CGI, FastCGI, or apache2filter?

I haven't changed anything, Apache and php are both from the RH9 distro plus maintenance patches. I noticed in the config/index.php script that php_sapi_name was being checked in the install, so I put a little php test file in my document root: <?php $sapi_type = php_sapi_name(); if (substr($sapi_type, 0, 3) == 'cgi') { echo "You are using CGI PHP\n"; } else { echo "You are not using CGI PHP\n"; } ?> Pointing my web browser to this (via Apache) reports: sapi name is apache2filter And this seems to turn off pretty URLS. Is this a difference between 1.3 and 1.4? Is this something which I can change? I know very little about configuring PHP.

...

Can you confirm that you don't have some other problem?

I'm sure that I have many <G>

...

Have you made sure that you're not rewriting the skin files into wiki pages or some other problem?

No the RewriteConds seem to be working correctly according to the rewrite log at level 9

Rick DeNatale

10:20 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 17:18:21 -0500, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:10:32 -0800, Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com> wrote: > Rick DeNatale wrote:

...

<?php $sapi_type = php_sapi_name(); if (substr($sapi_type, 0, 3) == 'cgi') { echo "You are using CGI PHP\n"; } else { echo "You are not using CGI PHP\n"; } ?>

Oops, that's the script I used as an example, the one I wrote just dumped out the raw output of php_sapi_name()

Brion Vibber

10:40 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

Rick DeNatale wrote:

...

You could if you want. On Wikipedia we have /w/index.php and /wiki/Foo.

...

[snip]

...

Pointing my web browser to this (via Apache) reports: sapi name is apache2filter

apache2filter doesn't allow you to use the PATH_INFO extra information (eg index.php/Foo). If you try, you get a 404 error.

...

And this seems to turn off pretty URLS. Is this a difference between 1.3 and 1.4?

No, nothing's changed wrt that. That wouldn't have worked in 1.3 or 1.2 either with apache2filter.

...

Is this something which I can change? I know very little about configuring PHP.

Reinstall PHP with apache2handler selected as the SAPI if you want index.php/Foo to work. See PHP documentation on configuring and compiling PHP. -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

Anders Wegge Jakobsen

9:51 p.m.

New subject: [Mediawiki-l] mod_rewrite again

"Rick" == Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale(a)gmail.com> writes:

...

Add me to the list of folks pulling their hair out trying to get prettier urls to work with mediawiki.

Take a look at how I did it: <http://wiki.wegge.dk/MediaWiki_customizations> But beware, this way of doing things can lead to endless redirect loops, so don't do it unless you can monitor the access_log regularly. -- /Wegge Min holdning til Usenet - <http://wiki.wegge.dk/Usenet> Min weblog - <http://blog.wegge.dk/>

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participants (5)

Anders Wegge Jakobsen
Brion Vibber
Ira Abramov
Jan Steinman
Rick DeNatale