Apache rewrite in docker not working for PHP files

Question

My docker container apache seems to be unable to rewrite requests for .php files. Interestingly enough, any other file type seems to work just fine.

For example with this simple .htaccess configuration:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^(.*)\.php$ index.php [L]

RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ index.php [L]

RewriteRule ^(.*)\.txt$ index.php [L]

RewriteRule ^(.*)\.xml$ index.php [L]

Every request ending with .php , .html , .txt or .xml should be rewritten to index.php . However all request ending with .php are ignored and the requested file is shown, as if there was no configuration at all.

Dockerfile:

ARG APACHE_VERSION=""
FROM httpd:${APACHE_VERSION:+${APACHE_VERSION}-}alpine

RUN apk update; \
    apk upgrade;

# Copy apache vhost file to proxy php requests to php-fpm container
COPY project.apache.conf /usr/local/apache2/conf/demo.apache.conf
RUN echo "Include /usr/local/apache2/conf/demo.apache.conf" \
    >> /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

.env (configuration)

APACHE_VERSION=2.4
PROJECT_ROOT=./www

compose.yml

version: "3.2"
services:
  apache:
    build:
      context: './apache/'
      args:
        APACHE_VERSION: ${APACHE_VERSION}
    depends_on:
      - php
      - mysql
    networks:
      - frontend
      - backend
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ${PROJECT_ROOT}/:/var/www/html/
    container_name: apache

Apache config:

ServerName localhost

LoadModule deflate_module /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_deflate.so
LoadModule proxy_module /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # Proxy .php requests to port 9000 of the php-fpm container
    ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://php:9000/var/www/html/$1
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
    <Directory /var/www/html/>
        DirectoryIndex index.php
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # Send apache logs to stdout and stderr
    CustomLog /proc/self/fd/1 common
    ErrorLog /proc/self/fd/2
</VirtualHost>

I am not certainly sure if the issue lies within docker or apache so the question might need to be renamed.

Here is the full docker config that I am using if anyone wants to reproduce the issue inside their own docker: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D_a-9d_BfomzrAjSxGNo8M3nZ1s2imU9/view?usp=sharing

It has a.bat file for automatic setup so the only thing you need to run it is a working docker.

Answer 1

You have this ProxyPassMatch line:

ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://php:9000/var/www/html/$1

Which is proxying every *.php requests to port 9000 of the php-fpm container.

This directive runs before mod_rewrite and handles all *.php files, thus your rewrite rule in .htaccess to rewrite all *.php URIs is never invoked.

You can change this directive to proxy only /index.php and let all remaining .php requests to flow through to mod_rewrite and .htaccess like this.

ProxyPassMatch ^/(index\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://php:9000/var/www/html/$1

You can refactor your .htaccess like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /    

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L,NC]

RewriteRule \.(php|html?|xml)$ index.php [NC,L]