It is as well to rename the old one to z.htaccess on the server then you can unwind it fairly quickly. I have periodic troubles with it myself.
I have been trying to add defensive anti malicious probes redirects (mainly to stop the log filling up with 404's). This is the .htaccess script which works after a fashion but only to a very limited extent.
RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^gotcha\.html$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} "\.env|\.php|wp|\.git|\.js" RewriteRule . /gotcha.html [L]
IOW if the file doesn't exist on the site and contains any of the matches on the last RewriteCond line substitute a tiny html file containing just ">" prompt rather than a 404 Not Found.
It works OK for .php, wp- but not for .env, wp5 .wp .env .git or .js
Fails Not Found:
Examples chosen to highlight the very perverse behaviour.
I am baffled by this behaviour and cannot see what I have done wrong.
I have recently taken over their website maintenance after the webmaster sadly died so I might be fighting some other directives elsewhere that I don't know about. My aim in doing this is to reduce the clutter in the logs (mostly injection attacks against Wordpress which isn't in use).
Thanks for any enlightenment.