For those experiencing problems with this, you are probably using a version of Apache that is older than 2.2.x
For those using a version before 2.2, use the following instead:
############################################
## rewrite errors to 503 error document
RewriteRule ^report/.* /503.html [L]
Basically, you need to drop the R flag. The Apache documentation states:
"While this is typically used for redirects, any valid status code can be given here. If the status code is outside the redirect range (300-399), then the Substitution string is dropped and rewriting is stopped as if the L flag was used."
I personally perceive this to be a bug - as it's inconsistent in that it does work on some 2.0 installs.
For those experiencing problems with this, you are probably using a version of Apache that is older than 2.2.x
For those using a version before 2.2, use the following instead:
############################################
## rewrite errors to 503 error document
RewriteRule ^report/.* /503.html [L]
Basically, you need to drop the R flag. The Apache documentation states:
"While this is typically used for redirects, any valid status code can be given here. If the status code is outside the redirect range (300-399), then the Substitution string is dropped and rewriting is stopped as if the L flag was used."
I personally perceive this to be a bug - as it's inconsistent in that it does work on some 2.0 installs.
Anyway - I hope this helps.