Mod rewrite question (really a regex problem)

Question

Ive started out with the most basic rewrite there is, take any request and give it to my index page:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [L,QSA]

Im trying to change it now so lets say i have a directory called special, I actually want to be able to go to http://example.com/special and access whatever files are in there.

I tried this:

RewriteRule ^special/.*$ index.php [L, QSA]

but it didnt work.

Answer 1

Try either this:

RewriteRule !^special/ index.php [L]

Or this:

RewriteRule ^special/ - [L]
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

Answer 2

If you want this to apply to any directory, try this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUESTFILENAME}!-d 
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]