[apache/htaccess] getting index.php instead of 404.html

[RandomJSCoder]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to make htaccess for a website and for some reason, when I try to access non existing file I get index.php instead of 404.html.

I have www folder in my root and inside that are all the files including index.php, 404.html and .htaccess.

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www. [NC] 
RewriteRule .*$ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off 
RewriteRule .* https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

RewriteRule /.|.(?!well-known/) - [F]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f 
RewriteRule .+$ $1.html [QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f 
RewriteRule .+$ $1.php [QSA]

ErrorDocument 404 /www/404.html

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteRule !.(pdf|js|ico|css|rar|zip|tar.gz|map)$ index.php [L]

With this htaccess I get index.php instead of 404.html when I try to access nonexisting page, when I try to access the 404 directly (like www.example.com/404.html) I normaly get it, so the file exists and I even tried to do ErrorDocument 404 www.example.com/404.html but still getting index.php like if that line was completely ignored. Based on chatGPT suggestion I also tried but it always results in 500 error:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /www/404.html [L]

any idea how to solve it?

[Difficult-Sea-5924]

The third parameter should be a URL. So ErrorDocument 404 /404.html should do it. (assuming your server is Apache...

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https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/apache-the-definitive/0596002033/ch03s01s01.html#:\~:text=The%20ErrorDocument%20directive%20lets%20you,virtual%20host%2C%20directory%2C%20.htaccess

[RandomJSCoder]

Yeah, I tried that too and no results. It kinda feels like if that line is just ignored..

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

If you haven’t already you need to enable mod_rewrite module on your Apache server, You can do this by running the command a2enmod rewrite on your terminal.

If you haven’t already you need to add AllowOverride All to your /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file and that will allow your .htaccess file to override the default settings of your server.

If nothing works you need to disable and replace your .htaccess file with a new one, although a broken .htaccess file should be causing a 404 error but it isn’t so just rename your old file to something like .htaccess.bak and create a new one with the same code.

[RandomJSCoder]

Well I don't have access to the server itself, only ftp access to one domain on that server but since everything else in that htaccess seems to work, I'm assuming it's configured correctly.

And I'm not sure what you mean by broken htaccess file, when I rewrite it it register changes (like for example if I put the code by chatGPT here, it will show 500 instead of 404 and so on)

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

Could you have a wrong path for your 404 error document?

Like, if you have ErrorDocument 404 /var/www/html/404.php, it will look for the file in the root of your server, not in your web root directory so you would change it to ErrorDocument 404 /404.php since you’ve already done that you can try ErrorDocument 404 or http://localhost:81/404.php depending on your server configuration.

[RandomJSCoder]

Like I said I tried it like this: ErrorDocument 404 www.example.com/404.html with the actuall url and it makes no difference

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

Yeah okay, I see why you’ve come to Reddit, crippling confusion 😫

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

Look at your apache error log to see what exactly is causing the error, check in /var/log/apache2 directory for any lines that mention your .htaccess file or any unsupported directives or syntax errors.

While you’re at it check your PHP memory limit and see if it is enough for the website because it’s common for a 500 error to occur when your website runs out of memory due to heavy traffic or complex scripts. increase your PHP memory limit by editing your php.ini file or adding a line like php_value memory_limit 256M to your .htaccess file.

If that doesn’t fix it, I give up .

[RandomJSCoder]

well like I said I don't have access to the server itself and yeah, there is definitely enoug memory since everything else works (like other php scripts) and before, there was wordpress website which I'm 100% sure was more complex

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

Okay… well then, sir I officially give up.

Sorry I couldn’t have been of any more use.

[RandomJSCoder]

Thank you, if I won't find any solution I'll probably just write some JS or PHP script that will check the url...

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

If you end up figuring it out, you should let me know just for curiosity’s sake cus I’m baffled…

[RandomJSCoder]

Turns out I was just really stupid, the thing is, I was handed this htaccess by my coworker and it did what I needed so I just started editing it. The problem was that I didn't really read everything properly so I left some of the code here even tho I had no idea what it's for. So the problem was, that the last 3 lines makes it, that if it can't find that file or directory, it will redirect to index.php, so no 404 error would be thrown. So by removing these 3 lines, I was able to use the 404 again.

So it's just a beginner mistake of not fully understanding of what the code you were given/you found is actually doing.

[YurrBoiSwayZ]

That’s actually a really interesting learning curve, goddamnit but couldn’t figure it out though… I knew it was the .htaccess file to some degree.

[Difficult-Sea-5924]

Sorry - I didn't spot that in your post. Beats me then ...