HTACCESS REQUEST_URI without the filename - php

Question

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(images)
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.(txt|rtf|docx?|odt|pdf|bmp|gif|jpe?g|png|tiff?)$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/~abc123/uploader/process.php [nc]
Is there any way of not having to quote ~abc123/uploader but to modify my regular expression so that the request_uri without the filename is dynamically passed through?
I've tried looking at removing the filename from the request_uri and also changing my regular expression but to no avail.
What I'm trying to do is to make sure certain file types are processed by a PHP script and cannot be accessed directly.

Answer 1

Here are two clues that might help you:
First, you can use those keywords into your regular expression (I let you google for more information) : %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} and %{REQUEST_URI}
Second, here's an example of how to use it:
# (1) if domain name is static:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)\.s\.(.*) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)\.static\.(.*) [NC]
# (2) and it's not the JavaScript directory:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/js/(.*)$
# (3) *always* add /templates/ (if not there):
RewriteRule /(templates/)*(.*) /templates/$2 [L]
And a few people know that you can even change the whole destination filename this way (note: the STATIC and PATH_LOCAL variable is an environment variable that I've calculated a few steps before):
# If static...
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} 1
# ...first test to see if the file exists in the language path:
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:PATH_LOCAL}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
# It exists => rewrite filename then end:
RewriteRule ^(.+) %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:PATH_LOCAL}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} [QSA,L]

Answer 2

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(?!images)(.*)/[-\w\.]*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.(txt|rtf|docx?|odt|pdf|bmp|gif|jpe?g|png|tiff?)$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/%1/process.php [NC,L]
will do what you ask. The (?!...) is a negative lookahead i.e don't include images. The [-\w.]*$ bit will match normal file names. What I don't understand is that a http://%{SERVER_NAME}/... redirect without the [R] is just a normal internal rewrite why you don't just do
RewriteRule ^(?!images)(.*)/[-\w]*\.(?:txt|rtf|docx?|odt|pdf|bmp|gif|jpe?g|png|tiff?)$ $1/process.php [NC,L]
Without any conds or
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^images
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (txt|rtf|docx?|odt|pdf|bmp|gif|jpe?g|png|tiff?)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)/.* $1/process.php [NC,L]
if you want to keep it easier to understand.