Htaccess, go through files until exists? - .htaccess

Question

I have this .htaccess file:
Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes
RewriteEngine On
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule \.(png|jpg|gif|jpeg|bmp|ico|flv|mpeg|mp4|mp3|swf|exe|WAgame|wsc|eot|svg|ttf|woff|woff2|rar|wav)$ - []
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint3.php
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint2.php
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint.php
RewriteRule ^robots\.txt$ http://www.example.com [R,NE,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST} [L,R=301]
<Files .htaccess>
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from All
</Files>
If the entryPoint3.php exists, load it, otherwise load entryPoint2.php otherwise entryPoint.php. How to achieve this?

Answer 1

Have it this way:
Options +FollowSymLinks -Indexes
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule \.(png|jpg|gif|jpeg|bmp|ico|flv|mpeg|mp4|mp3|swf|exe|WAgame|wsc|eot|svg|ttf|woff|woff2|rar|wav)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^robots\.txt$ / [R,NC,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301,NE]
# if entryPoint3 exists then use it
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/entryPoint3.php -f
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint3.php [L]
# if entryPoint2 exists then use it
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/entryPoint2.php -f
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint2.php [L]
# if entryPoint exists then use it
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/entryPoint.php -f
RewriteRule ^ entryPoint.php [L]
<Files .htaccess>
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from All
</Files>

Answer 2

I solved it like that: DirectoryIndex entryPoint3.php entryPoint2.php entryPoint.php what's the difference?
...but remember it will try to open entryPoint files in every directory not just in site root
You can specify root-relative URL-paths as arguments to the DirectoryIndex directive, they do not need to be relative, as you have here. For example:
DirectoryIndex /entryPoint3.php /entryPoint2.php /entryPoint.php
This will search for files in the document root only, regardless of which directory is requested.
But also, this is quite different to #anubhava's solution using mod_rewrite (and similar to what you were attempting in the question). With DirectoryIndex, the necessary file will only be served if you are requesting a directory (which includes the document root, ie. https://example.com/). eg. example.com/ and example.com/directory/ will trigger the relevant entryPoint file, but example.com/something will not.
However, with the mod_rewrite solution as stated, the relevant entryPoint file is served for "any" requested URL (except for the few URL-extension exceptions as stated). eg. example.com/, example.com/something, example.com/file.php and example.com/directory/ will all trigger the relevant entryPoint file.
For the mod_rewrite solution to work the same way as DirectoryIndex you will need an additional condition that explicitly checks that the request maps to a directory (including the trailing slash). For example:
# When requesting a directing... if entryPoint3 exists (in the root) then use it
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/entryPoint3.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.+/)?$ entryPoint3.php [L]
:
The RewriteRule pattern simply checks that the requested URL ends with a slash (or is the document root) - the same behaviour as DirectoryIndex. (If you request a directory without a trailing slash then mod_dir appends it with a 301 redirect.)
So the solution you choose really depends on your requirements. However, if DirectoryIndex is working for you then I assume you are only requesting filesystem directories, so DirectoryIndex would be the way to go.