Why is RedirectMatch 404 not working?

Question

htaccess

I can not understand why such a simple rule does not work.
RewriteEngine On
RedirectMatch 404 ^.*$

In general, .htaccess works correctly on websites, but this rule doesn't. I tried to create a rule for this directory in the main directory of the site, it also does not work.

RewriteEngine On
RedirectMatch 404 ^/mydir/.*$

Answer 1

it's better not to use a redirect match at all, since it is not needed at all
for any work with redirects, it's easier to use the RewriteCond+ rule.
we also don’t forget that
there is such a thing
ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
. Also, that 404 should actually be handled by php, since a physically missing page does not mean that the engine is not ready to give it away.