How can I make my .htaccess skip rules conditionally?

Question

I want to redirect all URLs that do not contain "_js","_css", "_img", etc., to my dispatch script. Somehow it doesn't work. For instance, all files inside my /_js/ folder are unaccessible (meaning: they are sent to index.php instead of getting to the physical files residing in that folder).

Here is my htaccess:

IndexIgnore *
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

# if the following conditions are met, SKIP the rewriteRules.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(_admin/¦_css/¦_js/¦_img/)
RewriteRule . - [S=9]


# Externally redirect to add missing trailing slash
RewriteRule ^(([a-z0-9._\-]+/)*[a-z0-9_\-]+)$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1/?%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,R,L]

# SIX PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5&title=$6&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

# FIVE  PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

# FOUR PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

# THREE PARAMS : projects/touch/texts/
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

# TWO PARAMS: downloads
RewriteRule ^downloads/([^/]+)/$ index.php?section=downloads&item=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}  [NC,L]

# TWO PARAMS:
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

# TAG URL : index.php?tag=space%2C+navigable+music#5
RewriteRule ^tag/([a-z0-9_\-]+)/$ index.php?tag=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]
# ONE PARAM
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9_\-]+)/$ index.php?section=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,L]

---

Edit:

Note my folder structure. Could it be the problem source?

I have a "v1" and "v2" folder structure. This .htaccess sits in the "v2" folder. one level above, i have a .htaccess that redirects all requests to "v2".

root 
  L.htaccess << dispatch between v1 and v2 folders 
  L v1 L v2 L.htaccess << the .htaccess code posted above 
  L _admin L all my website files & folders

Answer 1

You’re using the wrong character, ¦ (broken bar, U+00A6) instead of | (vertical line, U+007C), and wrong pattern for REQUEST_URI.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/v2/(_admin/|_css/|_js/|_img/)
RewriteRule . - [S=9]

Or for the .htaccess file in your v2 directory just:

RewriteRule ^_(admin|css|js|img)/ - [S=9]

Answer 2

Here are some random fixes that may or may not fix the actual problem, which is not totally clear (see my comment) and which could be helped if you control the server and enable the RewriteLog, via:

RewriteLog "/tmp/rewrite.log"
RewriteLogLevel 9

but you have to put this in main server configuration.

That said, two main problems:

• Lack of use of QSA flag (not really relevant)
• Excessive use of slashes (probably relevant in the actual problem, see new version of the skipping rule)

Here goes the modified file

IndexIgnore *
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

# if the following conditions are met, SKIP the rewriteRules.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(_admin¦_css¦_js¦_img)
RewriteRule . - [L]


# Externally redirect to add missing trailing slash. Not really needed, AFAICS
# RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*[^/]+)$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1/ [NC,R,L,QSA]

# SIX PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5&title=$6 [NC,L,QSA]

# FIVE  PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5 [NC,L,QSA]

# FOUR PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4 [NC,L,QSA]

# THREE PARAMS : projects/touch/texts/
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3 [NC,L,QSA]

# TWO PARAMS: downloads
RewriteRule ^downloads/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=downloads&item=$1  [NC,L,QSA]

# TWO PARAMS:
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?section=$1&item=$2 [NC,L,QSA]

# TAG URL : index.php?tag=space%2C+navigable+music#5
RewriteRule ^tag/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?tag=$1 [NC,L,QSA]
# ONE PARAM
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1 [NC,L,QSA]

EDIT: Given the folder structure explained, try adding to the v2 .htaccess at the beginning the following:

RewriteBase /

You still haven't explained if you can or cannot use RewriteLog (I presume you can't)