bostongio - 8:14 pm on May 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

Actually, of course mod_rewrite can change what is shown in the browser URL line. I use mod_rewrite to do just that all the time. Putting [R] at the end of a rewriterule line will redirect folks to the "new" URL.

And, no, the actual file doesn't have to exist in order to write a mod_rewrite rule to direct someone to it. A perfect example of this is Wordpress, which uses mod_rewrite to make it seem like every blog page is an actual page (like /wordpress/archives/04/05/05/) when it is, in reality, just a database query (like index.php?query=this&date=040505 ).

Putting [QSA] at the end of rewriterule line will engage this behavior and allows you to completely "hide" the fact that your site is a database-driven site.