Pretty URLs: its complicated

[mcnesium]

I run two instances of Nextcloud 14.0.1. One is run inside Docker using nextcloud:latest image, the other one is run on Uberspace 6, installed with the web-installer.

Admittedly I did not pay much attention until recently for this issue, so I don't know if it has always been this way, but since upgrade to v14 both instances had …/index.php/… in their URLs. I did add a trailing slash to overwrite.cli.url, then the Docker instance had pretty URLs, the Uberspace one did not. Questions rose…

Then I found that the Docker one has this part at the very bottom of .htaccess:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options -MultiViews
RewriteRule ^core/js/oc.js$ index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]
RewriteRule ^core/preview.png$ index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.(css|js|svg|gif|png|html|ttf|woff|ico|jpg|jpeg)$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !core/img/favicon.ico$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !core/img/manifest.json$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/remote.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/public.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/cron.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/core/ajax/update.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/status.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs/v1.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs/v2.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/robots.txt
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/updater/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs-provider/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/(acme-challenge|pki-validation)/.*
RewriteRule . index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]
RewriteBase /
<IfModule mod_env.c>
    SetEnv front_controller_active true
    <IfModule mod_dir.c>
    DirectorySlash off
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>

which the Uberspace one does not. I copied this to the Uberspace .htaccess but it did not help.

Now here comes the interesting part:

I ran php occ maintenance:update:htaccess on the Uberspace (non-Docker) instance, and this removed the stuff from .htaccess. Then I manually removed it from .htaccess on the Docker instance, ran php occ maintenance:update:htaccess and found all the stuff being back in the file. 0o

So, what is this maintenance:update:htaccess actually doing? And why is it doing different stuff on different instances? And why do pretty URLs work on one and not on the other instances?

Sidenote: this is not the only incidence of different behavior of those two instances

[nextcloud-bot]

GitMate.io thinks possibly related issues are #9182 (Just a question // Feature request // Pretty Share URL), #10471 (Improve URL detection), #7781 (htacces & pretty urls), and #6889 ([11.0.3 -> 12.0.3] Upgrade emptied .htaccess).

[kesselb]

server/lib/private/Setup.php

Lines 475 to 505 in d96adc0

	// Add rewrite rules if the RewriteBase is configured
	$rewriteBase = $config->getValue('htaccess.RewriteBase', '');
	if($rewriteBase !== '') {
	$content .= "\n<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>";
	$content .= "\n Options -MultiViews";
	$content .= "\n RewriteRule ^core/js/oc.js$ index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]";
	$content .= "\n RewriteRule ^core/preview.png$ index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\\.(css|js|svg|gif|png|html|ttf|woff|ico|jpg|jpeg)$";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !core/img/favicon.ico$";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !core/img/manifest.json$";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/remote.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/public.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/cron.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/core/ajax/update.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/status.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs/v1.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs/v2.php";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/robots.txt";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/updater/";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/ocs-provider/";
	$content .= "\n RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\\.well-known/(acme-challenge|pki-validation)/.*";
	$content .= "\n RewriteRule . index.php [PT,E=PATH_INFO:$1]";
	$content .= "\n RewriteBase " . $rewriteBase;
	$content .= "\n <IfModule mod_env.c>";
	$content .= "\n SetEnv front_controller_active true";
	$content .= "\n <IfModule mod_dir.c>";
	$content .= "\n DirectorySlash off";
	$content .= "\n </IfModule>";
	$content .= "\n </IfModule>";
	$content .= "\n</IfModule>";
	}

When htaccess.RewriteBase is not empty than these rules are written to htaccess. Is this value configured for your uberspace instance?

[mcnesium]

yes, both instances have 'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/', in their config.php

[kesselb]

When you execute php occ maintenance:update:htaccess you should either see .htaccess has been updated or Error updating .htaccess file, not enough permissions or "overwrite.cli.url" set to an invalid URL?

Could you execute php occ maintenance:update:htaccess; echo $?? The last part should echo the return code (0 or 1).

[mcnesium]

Sorry, I was not specific enough. The Uberspace instance did not have htaccess.RewriteBase in the config. But after I added that, it did not change the …/index.php/… being in the URL. I did not recheck what happened to the maintenance:update:htaccess command. Now I rechecked that, and it now has the IfModule mod_rewrite.c part inside as well. Still, no pretty URLs :(

[kesselb]

'htaccess.IgnoreFrontController' => false

You need to set the above when mod_env is not available (https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/13/admin_manual/configuration_server/config_sample_php_parameters.html). Looks like mod_env is not available for uberspace (https://wiki.uberspace.de/webserver:suexec#kompatibilitaet_mit_mod_env).

Please keep in mind that github is for software issues and https://help.nextcloud.com/ for configuration issues.

[mcnesium]

I know, but here people actually read and respond to stuff. My help post is stray for two weeks now