title: mod-rewrite RewriteRule ignored in document root .htaccess file
body: <p>I have the following at the top of the <code>.htaccess</code> file in the root of my virtual host:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteOptions inherit
  
  &lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;
          RewriteEngine on
          RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/blog(/.*)?$ [NC,OR]
          RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/mobile(/.*)?$ [NC]
          RewriteRule (.*) /? [R=301,L]
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This block validates out using the <a href="http://htaccess.madewithlove.be/" rel="nofollow">htaccess tester</a> and returns the desired results. However, when I hit the webserver -- Apache 2.4.6 -- I only receive 404 errors when requesting <code>http://www.domain.com/blog</code>; with or without the trailing slash.  The conf file for the vhost allows overrides and is configured to allow the following of symlinks. I also verified that httpd is seeing the <code>.htaccess</code> file by adding some junk in the file which resulted in a http status of 500; the desired results.</p>
  
  <p>The reason that I am not using <code>Redirect</code> or <code>RedirectMatch</code> is that I need to quell the querystring from the initial request. Otherwise, either of those directives works fine. Any ideas as to why this is failing on the server and not the tester is greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>