How to redirect direct requests to parent directory with .htaccess

Question

I'm using Symfony and I have a .htaccess that redirects connections to the root directory to the public directory and rewrites the URL to hide the "/public/" part but now I want to block direct connections to the /public/ directory how would I go about doing this?

My current .htaccess:

    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^public
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

I am also using another .htaccess in the public directory which is as follows:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s/+public/ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [F]

DirectoryIndex index.php

<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}::$0 ^(/.+)/(.*)::\2$
    RewriteRule .* - [E=BASE:%1]

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .+
    RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%0]

    RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} =""
    RewriteRule ^index\.php(?:/(.*)|$) %{ENV:BASE}/$1 [R=301,L]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ %{ENV:BASE}/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_alias.c>
        RedirectMatch 307 ^/$ /index.php/
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

Steps to reproduce:

    - Install xampp (https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html)
    - Install composer (https://getcomposer.org/)
    - Open command prompt
    - Enter the following commands
        cd C:\xampp\htdocs
        composer create-project symfony/website-skeleton "new project"
        cd new_project
        composer require apache-pack
        php bin/console make:controller MainController
    - Add the following code to MainController.cs located in src/Controller

        #[Route('/main', name: 'main')]
        public function index(): Response
        {
           $session = new Session();
           $session->start();
    
           // set and get session attributes
           $session->set('name', 'Drak');
           $session->get('name');
           return $this->render('main/index.html.twig', [
             'controller_name' => 'MainController',
           ]);
        }

Now navigate to: localhost/new project/public

Answer 1

I want to block direct connections to the /public/ directory

As you already have /public/.htaccess , add this rule at top of that .htaccess :

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s(?:/+(.+/))?public/ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [L,R=301,NE]

# rest of your rules below this

THE_REQUEST variable represents original request received by Apache from your browser and it doesn't get overwritten after execution of other rewrite directives. Example value of this variable is GET /index.php?id=123 HTTP/1.1