http status code 404 - PHP: prevent direct access to page

Question

I have some pages that I don't want users to be able to access directly.

I have this function I came up with which works:

function prevent_direct_access()
{
    if($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] == $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])
    {
        //include_once('404.php');
        header("Location: 404.php");
    }
}

This does exactly what I want, the URL does not change but the content does. However I am wondering if there is something I need to add to tell search engines that this is a 404 and not to index it. keep in mind I do not want the URL to change though.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Don’t redirect but send the 404 status code:

header($_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL'].' 404 Not Found', true, 404);
exit;