htaccess rewrite rules in separate directories

Question

I have a directory called "private". You can access the index.php file by using the url

http://www.example.com/private/

The index.php looks for the "page" parameter to require_once() the requested page.

http://www.example.com/private/?page=archive .

I wanted to make a rewrite rule to return the same query when user types:

http://www.example.com/private/archive .

I tried this rule but it doesn't seem to work.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^private/([a-z]+)/?$ private/?page=$1 [L]

The .htaccess doesn't want to work if I put it inside the "private" folder or the site's root. Isn't it suppose to be in the "private" folder instead of the root? My rewrite module is on.

Answer 1

Forgot to add "RewriteBase"

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /private/

RewriteRule ^([a-z]+)/?$ ?page=$1 [L]

There's no need to write "private/" in the rewrite rule since the rewrite base has been set to it. The .htaccess file should be inside the private folder of course.