What is wrong with my .Htaccess file? I'm trying to redirect permanently my whole site to the index.htm file

This is giving me a 500 internal server error. Any suggestions? I have tried various examples but I think I'm missing something...

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond  %{request_uri}!^ /index\.htm
RewriteRule  ^(.*) /index\.htm [R=permanent,L]

It displays the homepage if I navigate there but anything that meets the conditions (all appart from index.htm gives the server 500)

EDIT: with the above code it now doesnt give any 500 errors but it doesnt redirect for any pages

From serverfault SocialAddict

• You're not redirecting to /index.htm, you're redirecting to / which is different as far as Apache is concerned.

  Try: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.htm [R=permanent,L]

  SocialAddict : please can you edit out the domain - i forgot :)

  SocialAddict : Incidently I tried that just before your post with the same issue :(

  SocialAddict : I'm using utf-8 as the .htaccess file type is that correct?

  SocialAddict : still doesn't redirect but displays the original (old) page

  Andy Shellam : What about capitalising REQUEST_URI? It might be case-sensitive, and in all the Apache documentation, those macros ARE IN CAPS (not shouting, just illustrating :-P )

  SocialAddict : tried that now too no luck
  From Andy Shellam

• Your rewrite condition isn't split up well and your Not-StartWith is part of the previous parameter. :) You need a space after the %{REQUEST_URL} and before the !^

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index\.htm$
  RewriteRule  ^(.*) /index.htm [R=permanent,L]
  

  From Amadiere