Apache: How to redirect OPTIONS request with .htaccess?

Question

I have Apache 2.2.4 server with a lot of messages like this in the access_log:

::1 - - [15/May/2010:19:55:01 +0200] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 400 543
::1 - - [15/May/2010:20:22:17 +0200] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 400 543
::1 - - [15/May/2010:20:24:58 +0200] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 400 543
::1 - - [15/May/2010:20:25:55 +0200] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 400 543
::1 - - [15/May/2010:20:27:14 +0200] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 400 543

These are the "internal dummy connections" as explained on this page:

http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/InternalDummyConnection

The page also hits my main problem: "In 2.2.6 and earlier, in certain configurations, these requests may hit a heavy-weight dynamic web page and cause unnecessary load on the server. You can avoid this by using mod_rewrite to respond with a redirect when accessed with that specific User-Agent or IP address."

Well, obviously I cannot use UserAgent because I minimized the server signature, but I could use IP address. However, I don't have a clue what should the RewriteCond and RewriteRule look for IPv6 address ::1.

The website where this runs is using CodeIgniter, so there is already the following .htaccess in place, I just need to add to it:

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

Any idea how to write this .htaccess rule?

Solved: Adding another rule makes OPTIONS fall through current rules and be handled the same way as Apache is doing by default.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [G]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^::1$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]

I never access the website via localhost on IPv6, so this works great.

Solution

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} ^::1$
RewriteRule  ^OPTIONS  http://www.google.com/  [L]

that's my best guess, i'm certain of the RewriteCond, but not quite with the RewriteRule

it will match on the REMOTE_HOST being ::1 and then rewrite a request for any URL starting with OPTIONS to www.google.com

Comments

[DevGambit]

also perhaps RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^OPTIONS.* and RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://google.com/ [L] but only educated guessing

[Milan Babuškov]

Thanks, your rule gave me the idea how to solve it, so I'll mark your answer as accepted.

[DevGambit]

what did you end up needing to do? and glad i could sort of help :)

[Milan Babuškov]

I updated my question with the solution.

[MrWhite]

Old question, but hey... From the access log in the question, OPTIONS isn't part of the URL-path. "OPTIONS" is the request method (as opposed to GET or POST). With mod_rewrite you can check for this against the REQUEST_METHOD server variable in a RewriteCond directive.