Error 401 even with successful login

[tomandhannah]

This may be more of an Apache question? But I'm using PHP code, so we'll see.

I have a directory ("/admin") that is password protected using .htaccess

In the root .htaccess file I have the following line:
ErrorDocument 401 /error.php?id=401

In the error.php file, I use the PHP function mail() to send me an email anytime someone reaches this page. I like knowing who is trying to login and where. The mail() function works perfectly EXCEPT that I get an email even when I login correctly.

So, it seems that the error 401 is triggered even on a successful login, only I am not redirected to the error.php page. However, the error.php page must be requested somehow since I get the email. Actually, I get two emails every time.

Any ideas?

[devinemke]

not sure if this is related to your problem but i believe the ErrorDocument directive in htaccess requires a full absolute URL (you are using a relative path).

[tomandhannah]

According to the Apache manual, you can do either. But still, I'm not sure why that would trigger the error. I'm trying to make the site more portable and don't want to have fixed urls. Obviously, it works this way... but not quite. All the other errors work and they use relative paths. Maybe a bug?