Pretty URLs .htaccess - apache

Question

I always get in a tangle with .htaccess so was hoping someone could help me write one.
I have found stuff online similar to what I want, but I'm not confident enough
to rewrite their rewrites :P
I want this:
/foo/ = index.php?a=foo
/foo/bar/ = index.php?a=foo&b=bar
etc. up to /foo/bar/baz/cat/dog/ (&e=dog)
I also want the index.php to be invisible so that /index.php rewrites to /.
Another thing, I would like there to always be a trailing slash and therefore the ability
to do...
/foo/bar/baz/?another=whatever
I have directories such as /images/ that I don't want this to apply to,
so would I have to make a white list for this or are there certain redirects I can use?
Cheers!

Answer 1

You don't need to whitelist directories. That's what RewriteConds are for.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
It checks to make sure it's not a real file or real directory then performs the RewriteRule.
Try these rules below in your .htaccess file to get what you want.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /+[^\.]+$
RewriteRule ^(.+[^/])$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+) index.php?a=$1&b=$2&c=$3&d=$4&e=$5&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+) index.php?a=$1&b=$2&c=$3&d=$4&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+) index.php?a=$1&b=$2&c=$3&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+) index.php?a=$1&b=$2&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+) index.php?a=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]