moroandrea - 2:48 pm on Feb 13, 2013 (gmt 0)

@All

thanks for your time and efforts to get this explained to me. Very appreciated, though I still have some doubts.

@lucy24

The difference is the %{THE_REQUEST} line, which essentially tells the server "It is OK to hand over this file, but only if the visitor didn't ask for it."

Not sure I get this. If {THE_REQUEST} is processed all the time, what could be the benefit?

I'm perplexed because reading further, in the next paragraph you mention [NS] to be the same of {THE_REQUEST}.

So should I consider the {THE_REQUEST} and [NS] useful or perhaps ok to be used only when I'm treating everything that has not been:
a) typed in the URL address bar by a user
b) a link clicked from somewhere

According to @phranque, {THE_REQUEST} will always contain the new request, hence if I have a URL rewritten from a.html to b.html, the second {THE_REQUEST} should be something like GET b.html HTTP etc. etc.

I believe that if a working example can be made on top of what @g1smd did, I should probably be able to understand the scenario.

Thanks for your patience guys.