apache mod_rewrite help: writing an exception to a rewrite rule

Question

I have a site with this existing rule:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

so that it captures all URLs and translates them to this query.

How can I precede this with something that will make an exception for URLs of the form

http://www.example.com/services/{anything}

e.g. any URL that refers to something in a /services directory?

Answer 1

Try:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/services

If you are putting this into .htaccess, you might need:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !services

or

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !services/