Question

I’m learning how to mod rewrite URLs and I encountered a 500 server error after having this .htaccess file in my root folder:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^([^/]*)$ /a.php?a=$1 [L]

It would be great if someone can tell me which part I got wrong, thanks

Answer 1

Include at least all basic directives and one condition to prevent loops. Like this:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Prevent loops
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}  !a\.php  [NC]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/?  a.php?a=$1   [L]

Maybe that’s what you need, although I did not test it because it is impossible without a sample of the incoming URL, which is missing in the question.