Rewrite rule looping indefinitely

I have strange problem with .htaccess I can't solve:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1
   RewriteRule watermelonurltest wmelon/core/works.html
</IfModule>

When watermelonurltest is accessed, it loops to something like:

http://localhost/w/watermelonurltest/index.php/2/index.php/2/index.php/2/index.php/2/index.php/2/index.php/2/index.php/2/(...)

Which suggests that RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 is applied instead of RewriteRule watermelonurltest wmelon/core/works.html

I tried to swap these two rules, but then other pr开发者_如何学Coblems like this one occur.

The problem didn't exist when the first rule was

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1

(no question mark after .php)

For some reason, this question mark breaks it.

I can't figure out why this happens and how to fix it - I tried googling a little, but I didn't find anything helpful.

Thanks in advance.

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https://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=51C62&print=true

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I attempted to reproduce this in a fresh setup, but using the .htaccess and rules provided, I didn't encounter a loop; the rewrite was to index.php?/watermelonurltest; confirmed by looking at the rewrite log.

What redirection does index.php do, if any?