Apache configuration: Regex to disable access to files/directories beginning with a dot

Question

I want to disable access to any file OR directory, whose name begins with a DOT. I came up with the following, but it disables access to files/directories beginning with DOT onl

Answer 1

With rewrite mod:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [R=404]

Every file or dir who begin with a dot will be redirected to 404.

/myDir/.svn => 404
/.gitignore => 404
/dir1/dir2/dir3/..../.toHide => 404