The default .htaccess file
This code block is a configuration for Apache's mod_rewrite module, which is used for URL rewriting on the server. The directives:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>: This section is used to check if the mod_rewrite module is enabled on the server. If it is not enabled, the rules inside this section will not be applied.
RewriteEngine on: This directive turns on the URL rewriting engine.
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,} (.*)/pages/(.*).txt [NC]: This condition checks if the requested URL contains /pages/ followed by anything followed by a .txt extension. NC flag means that the match is case-insensitive.
RewriteRule ^ "-" [F]: If the condition is met, this rule responds with a Forbidden (403) status code ([F] flag) without serving the requested file.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d: This condition checks if the requested filename is not a directory.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f: This condition checks if the requested filename with a .php extension exists as a file.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php: If both previous conditions are met, this rule internally rewrites the URL to append .php to the requested filename. For example, example in the URL becomes example.php on the server.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f and RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d: These conditions check if the requested filename is neither an existing file nor an existing directory.
RewriteRule .* inc/404.php [L]: If the requested file doesn't exist, this rule internally redirects the request to inc/404.php. [L] flag indicates that this is the last rule to be processed if it matches.
This configuration essentially does the following:
Forbids direct viewing of .txt files in the /pages/ folder.
Rewrites non-PHP URLs to their PHP equivalents.
Redirects requests for non-existing files to inc/404.php.
ChatGPT: "the configuration appears to be well-structured and generally follows best practices for URL rewriting and error handling."
See Information | Qwwwik .htaccess