How to know which resources are called after using apache's http server's mod_rewrite.

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The situation

You set up rewrite rules in your apache configuration.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule    ^products/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$    product.php?category=$1&product=$2    [NC,L]
RewriteRule    ^blog/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$    blog.php?what=$1&post=$2    [NC,L]

If you have a problem, you would like to be able to see what urls are really called (after the rewriting).

Solution

Create a new log file, containing only the requested URL and the rewrited one.

    LogFormat "%r -> %f%q" rewriting
    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access_rewriting.log rewriting

Content:

GET /products/cake/kouignamann/ HTTP/1.1 -> /var/www/product.php?category=cake&product=kouignamann
GET /products/beverages/cider/ HTTP/1.1 -> /var/www/product.php?category=beverages&product=cider
GET /blog/life/4269/ HTTP/1.1 -> /var/www/blog.php?what=life&post=4269

You can then know which scripts are actually called, along with their arguments.

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