How come the [L] flag isn't working in my .htaccess file?

Question

Here are the rules:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule ^$ index.php?action=home [L]
RewriteRule ^[\w\W]*$ error.php [L]

When a page matches the first one, it is supposed to ignore any other further rules. Yet accessing / results in error.php being invoked. Commenting out the second rule works as intended - the page redirects to index.php.

What am I doing wrong?

Also: is there a better way to write the last line? It's basically a catch-all.

I need the last rule to take effect **only if the other rules did not match**. — Nathan Osman, May 11 '10 at 03:52
Maybe cause `within the .htaccess context, [L] will not force mod_rewrite to stop` see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/286004/hidden-features-of-mod-rewrite/286005#286005 — Marco Demaio, Apr 07 '11 at 13:50

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 11 '10 at 03:40

3

You could change

^[\w\W]*$ to ^[\w\W]+$ or ^.+$

answered May 11 '10 at 03:40

YOU

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But then `/a`, `/b`, `/c`, etc. would not match. – Nathan Osman May 11 '10 at 03:41
No, they would. `+` is "one or more", while `*` is zero or more. – Mitch Dempsey May 11 '10 at 03:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 11 '10 at 03:42

If the last line is a catch-all, just do RewriteRule ^.*$ error.php [L]

Your first line might be erroring out when you send a request for / because your rule is saying "nothing" and you are sending /.

Try changing your rule to RewriteRule ^/$ index.php?action=home [L]

How come the [L] flag isn't working in my .htaccess file?

2 Answers2