How come 'index' is failing to match this rewrite rule?

Question

Here are all of my rewrite rules: (there are no others - this is all of them)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^$ index.php?action=index
RewriteRule ^([\w]+)$ index.php?action=$1

When I visit:

mysite.com/test

The PHP script index.php is indeed invoked and has $_GET['action'] set to test as expected.

However, when I visit:

mysite.com/index

...the PHP script reports that $_GET is empty. Why does this happen only for index?

Answer 1

This might have something to do with your DirectoryIndex setting:

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/mod_rewrite/mod_rewrite-and-directoryindex/