apache - How do I ignore a directory in mod_rewrite?

Question

I'm trying to have the modrewrite rules skip the directory vip. I've tried a number of things as you can see below, but to no avail.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
#RewriteRule ^vip$ - [PT]
RewriteRule ^vip/.$ - [PT]
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/vip 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

How do I get modrewrite to entirely ignore the /vip/ directory so that all requests pass directly to the folder?

Update:

As points of clarity:

• It's hosted on Dreamhost
• The folders are within a wordpress directory
• the /vip/ folder contains a webdav .htaccess etc (though I dont think this is important

Answer 1

Try putting this before any other rules.

RewriteRule ^vip - [L,NC] 

It will match any URI beginning vip.

• The - means do nothing.
• The L means this should be last rule; ignore everything following.
• The NC means no-case (so "VIP" is also matched).

Note that it matches anything beginning vip. The expression ^vip$ would match vip but not vip/ or vip/index.html. The $ may have been your downfall. If you really want to do it right, you might want to go with ^vip(/|$) so you don't match vip-page.html