CodingForums.com - Can't get mod_rewrite to work correctly

Hi,

I am using WAMP with Drupal 7. I enabled the mod_rewrite module in httpd.conf to enable clean url's in drupal however since then I am unable to run my website due to 500 internal server error. When checked the Apache log I see ".htaccess: RewriteRule: bad flag delimiters". I am unable to figure out the reason for this error.

Below is the content for .htaccess placed in website root
Code:
#

# Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:

#



# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.

<FilesMatch "\.(engine|inc|info|install|make|module|profile|test|po|sh|.*sql|theme|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl)(|~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)?$|^(\..*|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template)$|^#.*#$|\.php(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig\.save)$">

  Order allow,deny

</FilesMatch>



# Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.

Options -Indexes



# Follow symbolic links in this directory.

Options +FollowSymLinks



# Make Drupal handle any 404 errors.

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php



# Set the default handler.

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm



# Override PHP settings that cannot be changed at runtime. See

# sites/default/default.settings.php and drupal_environment_initialize() in

# includes/bootstrap.inc for settings that can be changed at runtime.



# PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2.

<IfModule mod_php5.c>

  php_flag magic_quotes_gpc                 off

  php_flag magic_quotes_sybase              off

  php_flag register_globals                 off

  php_flag session.auto_start               off

  php_value mbstring.http_input             pass

  php_value mbstring.http_output            pass

  php_flag mbstring.encoding_translation    off

</IfModule>



# Requires mod_expires to be enabled.

<IfModule mod_expires.c>

  # Enable expirations.

  ExpiresActive On



  # Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).

  ExpiresDefault A1209600



  <FilesMatch \.php$>

    # Do not allow PHP scripts to be cached unless they explicitly send cache

    # headers themselves. Otherwise all scripts would have to overwrite the

    # headers set by mod_expires if they want another caching behavior. This may

    # fail if an error occurs early in the bootstrap process, and it may cause

    # problems if a non-Drupal PHP file is installed in a subdirectory.

    ExpiresActive Off

  </FilesMatch>

</IfModule>



# Various rewrite rules.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

  RewriteEngine on



  # Set "protossl" to "s" if we were accessed via https://.  This is used later

  # if you enable "www." stripping or enforcement, in order to ensure that

  # you don't bounce between http and https.

  RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl

  RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on

  RewriteRule ^ - [E=protossl:s]



  # Block access to "hidden" directories whose names begin with a period. This

  # includes directories used by version control systems such as Subversion or

  # Git to store control files. Files whose names begin with a period, as well

  # as the control files used by CVS, are protected by the FilesMatch directive

  # above.

  #

  # NOTE: This only works when mod_rewrite is loaded. Without mod_rewrite, it is

  # not possible to block access to entire directories from .htaccess, because

  # <DirectoryMatch> is not allowed here.

  #

  # If you do not have mod_rewrite installed, you should remove these

  # directories from your webroot or otherwise protect them from being

  # downloaded.

  RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]



  # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you

  # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred

  # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:

  #

  # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,

  # (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)

  # uncomment the following:

  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .

  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]

  # RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

  #

  # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,

  # (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)

  # uncomment the following:

  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]

  # RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]



  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a

  # VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.

  # For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and

  # modify the following line:

  # RewriteBase /drupal

  #

  # If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,

  # uncomment the following line:

  # RewriteBase /



  # Pass all requests not referring directly to files in the filesystem to

  # index.php. Clean URLs are handled in drupal_environment_initialize().

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

  #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico

  RewriteRule . index.php [L]



  # Rules to correctly serve gzip compressed CSS and JS files.

  # Requires both mod_rewrite and mod_headers to be enabled.

  <IfModule mod_headers.c>

    # Serve gzip compressed CSS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s

    RewriteRule ^(.*)\.css $1\.css\.gz [QSA]



    # Serve gzip compressed JS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s

    RewriteRule ^(.*)\.js $1\.js\.gz [QSA]



    # Serve correct content types, and prevent mod_deflate double gzip.

    RewriteRule \.css\.gz$ - [T=text/css,E=no-gzip:1]

    RewriteRule \.js\.gz$ - [T=text/javascript,E=no-gzip:1]



    <FilesMatch "(\.js\.gz|\.css\.gz)$">

      # Serve correct encoding type.

      Header set Content-Encoding gzip

      # Force proxies to cache gzipped & non-gzipped css/js files separately.

      Header append Vary Accept-Encoding

    </FilesMatch>

  </IfModule>

</IfModule>
Please help. Thanks in advance.