Apache's rewrite module commands not working in .htaccess

[Saberu]

Trying to run some rewrite module commands on the .htaccess file in the root directory of my web server.

This one is simply to point lyrics/artist/title directories to the php file, I get a 500 internal server error from it:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^lyrics/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+) lyrics.php?artist=$1&title=$2

This one is to point the root directory to index.php thus overwriting the auto index, I know I can do this with a simple redirect command but that shows the filename in the URL and I don't want to do that:

RewriteRule ^/$ index.php

This one just doesn't work and the site just uses the auto index of index.html.

 

[Saberu]

Ah sorry what I meant was:

RewriteRule ^lyrics/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+) lyrics.php?artist=$1&title=$2

I think thats right, it's artist and title names that will be in there.

edit: Thanks for the solution to the index.

edit2: works now, thanks.

 

[Saberu]

You can use

RewriteRule ^lyrics/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ /lyrics/$1/$2/ [R=301]
RewriteRule ^lyrics/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ /lyrics.php?artist=$1&title=$2 [L]

If there's a unknown string

Ah ok thanks, that solves the problem of matching spaces in the regEx. Is it safe to accept any user input through the URL though? Or do I need a regEx expression at some point to only match [a-zA-Z0-9_] and spaces?

Ah I think this is what I need:
[a-zA-Z0-9_\s]

edit: Nope that doesn't work, guess i'll just have to go with the match unknown string expression even if it is more unsafe.