Rewriterule using apache htaccess

Question

What is the difference on

RewriteRule .* protecao_dos.php [NE,L]

and

RewriteRule ^$ protecao_dos.php [NE,L]

Answer 1

The first one:

 RewriteRule .* protecao_dos.php [NE,L]

Will catch a path with anything including empty resource path like http://foo.com/ or http://foo.com/arbitrary/long/path .

The second one:

  RewriteRule ^$ protecao_dos.php [NE,L]

Will catch an empty path only like http://foo.com/