Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirect

Question

My website has been slowed down a little last couple of days. I've looked into my error log and found lots of these:

[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [error] [client 66.249.66.205] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3120): [client 66.249.66.205] r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysitecom/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php
[Mon Sep 30 00:09:53 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.66.205] redirected from r->uri = /images/2013/02/600x376_0.076827001313237200_pixnaz_ir_1.jpg

---

How can I find what is causing this?

It seems a loop around index.php, with the exception of the last one which is an image, most likely linked within one of my pages (not index).

I'm using codeigniter, which is a mvc framework and everything goes trough the index.php file, so it's a bit harder to understand where it goes wrong.

Apparently it has something to do with .htaccess (it's been mentioned in couple of blogs).

Here is my .htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    #Removes access to the system folder by users.
    #Additionally this will allow you to create a System.php controller,
    #previously this would not have been possible.
    #'system' can be replaced if you have renamed your system folder.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]

    #When your application folder isn't in the system folder
    #This snippet prevents user access to the application folder
    #Submitted by: Fabdrol
    #Rename 'application' to your applications folder name.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^application.*
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]

    #Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
    #such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
    #request to index.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
    # If we don't have mod_rewrite installed, all 404's
    # can be sent to index.php, and everything works as normal.
    # Submitted by: ElliotHaughin

    ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule> 
AddType image/x-windows-bmp bmp

---

I did some changes to my .htaccess (basically I've removed to top conditions before the last block) and now I get this:

[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [error] [client 66.249.74.60] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3120): [client 66.249.74.60] r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /home/mysite/domains/mysite.com/public_html/index.php/img/images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg
[Wed Oct 02 00:10:07 2013] [debug] core.c(3126): [client 66.249.74.60] redirected from r->uri = /images/2013/07/irwm_mysite_47b49a36d251fea382ba6b494fd3532ea75c78e6.jpg

Now it seems there is the img directory in the mix, but I dont have that directory at all. There used to be a subdomain which I used for images with this address.

img.mysite.com => mysite.com/files/images/

I don't use it anymore because of some slowness and complications. Now I just use the real path to images.

Why do i get this subdomain in the loop? I don't have access to the guy who configured this server. Could it be some config / setting that he has done?

Answer 1

You can also use the END flag, instead of the L flag:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [END]

Using the [END] flag terminates not only the current round of rewrite processing (like [L]) but also prevents any subsequent rewrite processing from occurring in per-directory (htaccess) context.

This does not apply to new requests resulting from external redirects.

Answer 2

To prevent infinite looping add an extra RewriteCond line on top of your rule like this:

RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$ prevents looping by checking an internal mod_rewrite variable REDIRECT_STATUS which is set to 200 after first successful internal redirect.

Reference: Apache mod_rewrite Introduction

Answer 3

I had some performance issues in Apache when the loglevel was debug ... Moving back to Error mode speedup the requests

Answer 4

Looking to your htaccess I see that you use it to remove index.php from your url, but you are missing the RewriteBase, you can add it after the RewriteEngine On directly like this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /

    #Removes access to the system folder by users.
    #Additionally this will allow you to create a System.php controller,
    #previously this would not have been possible.
    #'system' can be replaced if you have renamed your system folder.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

    #When your application folder isn't in the system folder
    #This snippet prevents user access to the application folder
    #Submitted by: Fabdrol
    #Rename 'application' to your applications folder name.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^application.*
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

    #Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
    #such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
    #request to index.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
    # If we don't have mod_rewrite installed, all 404's
    # can be sent to index.php, and everything works as normal.
    # Submitted by: ElliotHaughin

    ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
</IfModule> 
AddType image/x-windows-bmp bmp

So, RewriteBase / will be valid if your application/website is not on a subdomain. However, if it is then you might need to add the folder name after the / symbol.

Answer 5

I commented out the "RewriteBase /drupal" in my .htaccess file  present in drupal root folder. It works for me.

Answer 6

The last block:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]

Is most likely re-injecting a changed request URI over and over again which could cause such an internal redirect error. Check the error log with debugging level enabled to trace each redirect step, it makes things much more visible and will tell you exactly which redirect rules are triggering it.

For a detailed description and how to prevent the re-injection, please see:

• Mod_Rewrite unexpected behavior L flag

The solution outlined there actually should do it in your case as well. It's pretty much the same, even the file-names are identical.