mod_rewrite loops even with L flag

I know it's an old question, but to others searching for the REAL answer, here it is:

The [L] flag DOES work in .htaccess files. It tells the rewrite module to skip all of the following rules in that particular .htaccess file. It does its job, Apache rewrites the url and exits the .htaccess file.

However, at the end of the .htaccess file if the request url has been rewritten, the whole url matching process starts again with the new url.

This is what happens above, ^(.*)$ will always match the current url, it causes an infinite loop, only the maxredirect rewrite option (10 by default) stops it.

The !-f file attribute test (as mentioned by the questioner) would solve the problem, since the url will match a real filename:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi/$1 [L,QSA]

now, if we request http://example.com/toappend, .htaccess rewrites it to dispatch.fcgi/toappend and no rewrite loop will happen.

Hy , add this after RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200
RewriteRule .* - [L]

.. and it should work stoping loops .

Apparently -- and I only read this here, I have no first hand knowledge -- the [L] directive does not work in .htaccess files, only if its in your .conf file.

See: Hidden features of mod_rewrite

within the .htaccess context, [L] will not force mod_rewrite to stop. it will continue to trigger internal