How to write a generic .htaccess file rule, regarding RewriteBase

Question

The following rule in my .htaccess works just fine for routing calls to index.php:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]

However, this does not work when running on a temporary URL like http://example.com/~test/.

In such a case, the .htaccess file needs to read:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /~test/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]

Note the extra RewriteBase.

Question: is it possible to write a rule in .htaccess to "detect" whether to apply that RewriteBase?

The reason is the .htaccess if version controlled, and I'd like for it to work on multiple installations.

Answer 1

As far as I know, there's no reliable way to detect what the RewriteBase should be. If there were, there would be no need for the kluge that RewriteBase is, as mod_rewrite could just detect the correct base automatically.