mod_rewrite config for / - .htaccess

Question

I have the following .htaccess config
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule \.git - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^help help.php [L]
RewriteRule ^home home.php [L]
RewriteRule ^profile profile.php [L]
RewriteRule ^index index.php [L]
RewriteRule ^users/([0-9]+) profile.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)?$ profile.php?u=$1 [L]
Now, whenever somebody visits the landing page, they get redirected using the last rule for profile.php?u=$1.
How do I change the configuration so that www.example.com and www.example.com/ are mapped to index.php and not profile.php?

Answer 1

Match the empty string or single slash just after the ^index rule:
RewriteRule ^help help.php [L]
RewriteRule ^home home.php [L]
RewriteRule ^profile profile.php [L]
RewriteRule ^index index.php [L]
# Match root request with optional slash
RewriteRule ^/?$ index.php [L]

Answer 2

I will suggest not to do it this way.
Instead, simply user this
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
This will send all your requests to index.php page, from there create a router.php and pass on the requests to that page, using php.
but in case you do, just add
RewriteRule ^/?$ index.php [L]
Like Michael suggested.
Here is a simple tool to test your rules, if you wish to
Apache RewriteRule tester