Backreferences are not expanded in E flag

[kajman-cz]

Apache documentation says about flag E

VAL may contain backreferences ($N or %N) which are expanded.

But in the tester, neither $N nor %N is expanded.

For url http://example.com/file.php?one=1&two=2&three=3 and rules

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)&(.*)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1?%1&%2 [E=newqs:%1&%2,N,NE]
RewriteCond %{ENV:newqs} !^$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1?%{ENV:newqs} [R=302,L,NE]

tester returns
http://example.com/file.php?%1&%2

Apache returns
http://example.com/file.php?one=1&two=2&three=3

Note: in my experience, apache requires NE flag only in a redirect, otherwise the default is not escaped, but the documentation does not confirm. In the tester is required NE flag in first RewriteRule too - I'm not sure if it's another tester bug.

[WouterSioen]

We normally have pretty good consistency with apache for the NE flag (we have a set of rules containing this flag tested both against our app and against apache giving the same result).

We have not implemented the N flag and backreferences inside the E flag yet though.

I'll let you know once we've implemented this.