How to silently auto-load from a subdirectory, but allow internal paths to think the file is located at site root?

Question

I have files in my site root, and also files in its "Iternet_IE" directory. I need to:

1.) be able to call/include other files (e.g. headers or footers) from within files at either of those locations... using the same path in the include/link, etc. ... e.g. with a prefixing / in the include path, where those include files are located in the site root.

The catch is that I also need:

2.) any incoming traffic using our sharpedge. subdomain to auto-load from the Internet_IE directory - which is one level deeper than the site root (without Internet_IE being specified in the URL).

In an attempt to accomodate these 2 requirements, I have set the DocumentRoot for both the main domain and the subdomain to the site root:

I have this in httpd.conf:

[snip]
NameVirtualHost 11.22.33.44

<VirtualHost 11.22.33.44>
    Options All +ExecCGI
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourdomain.com
    ServerName ourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.ourdomain.com
    DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.dna
    #---------------------------------
    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
    </IfModule>
    #---------------------------------
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 11.22.33.44>
    Options All +ExecCGI
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourdomain.com
    ServerName  sharpedge.ourdomain.com
    DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.dna
    #---------------------------------
    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
    </IfModule>
    #---------------------------------
</VirtualHost>
[snip]

...and I am trying to use a RewriteRule in .htaccess to effectively cause traffic using the sharpedge. subdomain to auto-load from the Internet_IE directory:

this is in .htaccess (in the site root, here: /var/www/html/ourdomain.com/) :

Options -Indexes

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /

    RewriteCond   %{HTTP_HOST} ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com$
    # years ago this next line was used here, but in httpd.conf: (I don't know what it was supposed to do)
    # RewriteRule   ^(.+)        %{HTTP_HOST}$1          [C]
    RewriteRule   ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com(.*) /var/www/html/ourdomain.com/Internet_IE/$1  [L]
</IfModule>

..but nothing happens from the RewriteRule; it is as if the RewriteRule was not there. Why?

Or is there another/better way I can meet the 2 requirements I list at the top, above the code snips.?

Answer 1

this did it:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sharpedge\.ourdomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/Internet_IE/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /Internet_IE/$1 [L]

Thanks goes to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11744085/530006