mod_rewrite: Why does apache URL-encode %{HTTP_COOKIE}?

I am trying to match a value in a cookie. The problem is, Apache makes the value url-encoded. So, if I do this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ^(.+)$ [NC]

It will capture this:

session%3DeXnR1oDL1Reb8Z3Gdgk7Sg%26account%3D2%3B

instead of this:

session=eXnR1oDL1Reb8Z3Gdgk7Sg&account=2

So there is no way to get the accoun开发者_JAVA百科t number to do this:

RewriteRule ^$ /accounts/%1/ [R=301,L]

Please help! I have looked everywhere on Google and stackoverflow and no one has addressed this issue. Thank you so much.

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I never did find the answer -- BUT, I did find a work-around. For those having the same problem, here it is:

Separate your sub-cookie values using a character that will NOT get URL encoded. I used the dash character "-". e.g. "VAL1--VAL2".

Good luck!

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Did you try using flag -> NE|noescape ?

By default, special characters, such as & and ?, for example, will be converted to their hexcode equivalent. Using the [NE] flag prevents that from happening.

RewriteRule ^/anchor/(.+) /bigpage.html#$1 [NE,R]

The above example will redirect /anchor/xyz to /bigpage.html#xyz. Omitting the [NE] will result in the # being converted to its hexcode equivalent, %23, which will then result in a 404 Not Found error condition.

Source: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.3/rewrite/flags.html