.htaccess rewrite rules for nonsense URLs

Question

I have a number of rules governing the URLs on my main website & it's a pretty nice setup. There is an unintended consequence that has come up though. My latest addition cleans up a bunch of 500 errors and allows nonsense URLs to redirect a default page instead.

I need to direct some such URLs to 404 instead but I'm having trouble getting the rule to work. Here is the working rule as it stands right now. I'd like a version of this that directs the request to 404 instead given a specific page.php.

This version effects anything ending with .php/ which might be ok but it would be nice to see one configured for only a single, specific file. Also I'm thinking the redirect in the 1st rule should probably be 301 no?

## STRIP ANYTHING AFTER .php/ ##
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /([^.]+)\.php/? [NC] 
RewriteRule ^ /%1/ [NC,R,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/?$ /$1.php [L,NC]

Answer 1

You just need to add any rules that target specific URLs before your more generalised redirect.

Also note that, generally, you should deliver a 404 with an internal subrequest, not an external "redirect" (as you describe). So, if you want to return a specific 404 message, you should also define a custom error document with the ErrorDocument directive.

For example:

ErrorDocument 404 /my-error-documents/error404.php

# Respond with a 404 for specific URL
RewriteRule ^page\.php$ - [R=404]

# Other rules follow...

Request /page.php and /my-error-documents/error404.php will be served via an internal subrequest. The URL remains as /page.php in the browser. A "404 No Found" is automatically sent by Apache. Despite the use of the R flag, this is not an external redirect (which only applies to 3xx codes).

Note that the substitution string is a single hyphen (indicating "no substitution"). There is no need to include the L flag when using a non-3xx status code.

Also I'm thinking the redirect in the 1st rule should probably be 301 no?

If this is intended to be permanent and you have tested that this works as intended then use a 301 code. ie. R=301

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Aside:

RewriteRule ^ /%1/ [NC,R,L]

On a rule like this, where you're not actually matching anything, or where the pattern already encompases all upper and lowercase letters (as in your second rule) then the NC flag is entirely superfluous.