I currently have a .htaccess file set up with this rule:

`RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ user\.php?user=$1 [L]`

which works as expected:
**mysite.com/joe** becomes **mysite.com/user.php?user=joe**

How could I change the regex to include periods in a possible username?

For example I would like
**mysite.com/joe.bloggs** to go to **mysite.com/user=joe.bloggs**

Currently this brings up a 404 missing page error.

I have tried `^([a-zA-Z0-9\._-]+)$ user\.php?user=$1 [L]`
But this produces an internal error 500 (I think this is due to an infinite loop: user.php is designed to redirect to the homepage if no user is specified.)

I'm pretty new to all of this (regex especially). Thanks for any help!