RewriteLog in .htaccess?

#1

I’m looking to program up an .htaccess file with mod_rewrite. I see there is a RewriteLog directive to watch what is being rewritten.

Alas, turning it on seems to not be allowed and creates an error. Is there an alternative way to debug this? Is the logging happening anyway and I just need to find out where?

Thanks,
Erik

#2

I am also very interested in RewriteLog and/or any other alternative way to debug RewriteRule from .htaccess

Regards,
Dejan

#3

No answer on this? I am following the same issue.

I need to set up a redirect from a subdomain of my single domain on DreamHost to a specific URL on someone else’s domain…

Here is what I’m trying to accomplish and what I have tried so far, which is not yet working, and this is why I would find Rewrite logging very helpful.

Scenario:
When end users point their browser to service.ourdomain.com they should be redirected to app.otherdomain.com/service?parameter=value.

Steps taken:

  1. I added a CNAME dns record so that service.ourdomain.com is an alias of ourdomain.com. I believe this means my apache2 server for ourdomain.com (yes, we do not use ‘www’, we redirect it to without-www) would then receive all requests that were directed to service.ourdomain.com, and in .htaccess I should then have access to the original requested domain and I could use the fact that it begins with ‘service’ to rewrite the URL as desired.

  2. I set up a RewriteCond and RewriteRule that should work. But attempting to access service.ourdomain.com leads to not an error message from otherdomain (which is not hosted by DreamHost), but a “Site Missing” error page from DreamHost. So I’m pretty sure that means my Rewrite isn’t working, but since I apparently cannot set up RewriteLog and RewriteLogLevel in .htaccess, I don’t know how to make progress on this.

I was glad to find this item being discussed here in the forum but I’m sorry to see no one has answered. I will continue searching in case it’s a duplicate. Someone must have asked this before at some point.
[hr]
I contacted DreamHost Support today and they informed me that:

  1. RewriteLog and RewriteLogLevel can only be done in httpd.conf, not .htaccess
  2. This would require sudo access, which requires either a DreamCompute or Dedicated Hosting account, not available with a VPS.
  3. I already knew both of the above, which is why I was just asking them if they would please temporarily set up a RewriteLog for me, knowing that I cannot set it up for myself. This was based on the fact that for many years DreamHost has been willing to make minor and temporary debugging-related setttings changes for us which are above the account owner/administrator’s privilege level. But not this one. The support agent was confused by my simple description of a very simple redirect attempt and stated firmly that this was all out of scope of support, suggesting that I contact a developer. “I am a developer! Which is exactly why this should not require a more expensive account for a simple debug setting.” No luck at all.

So if you’re seeing this thread and you really need to get a RewriteLog, either prepare to (temporarily?) upgrade your service to Dedicated, or prepare to leave DreamHost and go somewhere where you can actually manage your VPS.