Redirect requests only if the file is not found?

Question

I\'m hoping there is a way to do this with mod_rewrite and Apache, but maybe there is another way to consider too.

On my site, I have directories set up for re-skinn

Answer 1

# If requested resource exists as a file or directory, skip next two rules
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1 -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1 -d
RewriteRule (.*) - [S=2]
#
# Requested resource does not exist, do rewrite if it exists in /archive
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/archive/$1 -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/archive/$1 -d
RewriteRule (.*) /archive/$1 [L]
#
# Else rewrite requests for non-existent resources to /index.php
RewriteRule (.*) /index.php?q=$1 [L] 

From Rewrite if files do not exist