htaccess prevent direct access to files while allo

Question

General Overview

I've been creating this really nice .htaccess file with a bunch of settings that work great so far. I am wondering if it is possible, now, to allow access to files through flat links only while denying access to the same files directly.

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Explanation & Current Settings

To better present this question consider the following:
I have a file: i.e. myFile.php
Which is in a subfolder: i.e. my/path/to/file/
The file's full path would then be my/path/to/file/myFile.php
Accessing this file through a URL, one would write: my.domain.com/my/path/to/file/myFile.php

In my .htaccess file, I have written a rewrite rule, similar to the following line of code (preceded by some RewriteCond's that ensure conditions are met regarding the host and filenames respectively):

RewriteRule ^home$ \/my\/path\/to\/file\/myFile.php [NC,L]

This means that someone trying to get to my page my/path/to/file/myFile.php can simply write my.domain.com/home instead of the ugly path my.domain.com/my/path/to/file/myFile.php.

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Question & Preferred Outcome

What I am asking is:
Is it possible to block access to myFile.php if a person or machine attempts to go to my.domain.com/my/path/to/file/myFile.php, all the while allowing access to the file through my.domain.com/home?

Any help regarding this is greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Is it possible to block access to myFile.php if a person or machine attempts to go to my.domain.com/my/path/to/file/myFile.php, all the while allowing access to the file through my.domain.com/home

Yes it is possible using THE_REQUEST variable, represents original request received by Apache from your browser and it doesn't get overwritten after execution of some rewrite rules.

You can use this rule to block direct access to that particular file:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /my/path/to/file/myFile\.php[?/\s] [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [F]