can you send 404 with a mod_rewrite map?

sneakyimp

I have a mod_rewrite rule that uses a map program:

# Define the rewrite maps here because it is not permitted in the htaccess file
RewriteMap seo_map_majors prg:/var/www/mod_rewrite_maps/map_majors.php

# grab the query string
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(cip=[0-9\.]+)(&?)(.*)$

# rewrite it using the map
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ ${seo_map_majors:$1?%1}?%3 [L,R=301]

I'm having a problem that a few bots are trying to access pages for non-exist values for the cip code. As far as I can know, the only thing I can do from my map script is to return NULL if something is not found. Unfortunately, this still results in a valid url (in this case http://mydomain.com/majors). I can't figure out how to send a 404 in this case. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Weedpacket

If I understand right, you can add a PT passthrough flag to that rule, and follow it with a RedirectMatch rule

RedirectMatch 404 /majors$ http://www.example.com/errorpage

sneakyimp

EDIT: Thanks weedpacket!

Hmmm. http://mydomain.com/majors is a valid url. I believe your suggestion would send 404 whenever someone tries to access it.

To clarify. This url is valid

http://mydomain.com/majors

This may or may not be valid, depending on whether my map program is able to locate CIP in my database table:

http://mydomain.com/majors/somefile.php?cip=40.0299

I cannot know if the code is valid or not until the map program has looked it up.