title: mod_rewrite: what does this RewriteRule do?
body: <p>Given these conditions (I know what they mean/do):</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What does the <strong>first</strong> rule do? What is that lonely dash for?</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
  RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.php [NC,L]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've been using this for quite some time now in combination with the Zend Framework, but I never really got what the first rule does exactly.</p>