mod_rewrite: Rewrite root to somewhere else

Question

I'm trying to rewrite URLs to a generic show_page.php script, but I'm having trouble redirecting the root URL. I've been searching Google and stackoverflow but all I've come across implies that ^$ will redirect the root, but for some reason it doesn't. All I get is a 403 Forbidden (since I have indexes turned off).

Here's my current .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.+) /show_page.php?url=$1 [QSA,NS]

Other URLs redirect perfectly, and if I change the rule to:

RewriteRule ^$ /show_page.php?url=/ [QSA,NS]

I still get the 403.

Answer 1

Sorry, I've just realised my mistake, the rewrite conditions were stopping it from working, doh!