i really need help here. Sitting for some time now and dont figured it out.

I want to realize a very simple task - rewrite a non-existent php file to another existant php file with all arguments like:

this  http://example.com/nonexistent.php?url=google.com
to -> http://example.com/existent.php?url=google.com

I tried something like this:

rewrite ^/nonexistent.php /existent.php;

Which dont works (File not found). But redirect a non-existent html file to a php file like this:

rewrite ^/nonexistent.html /existent.php;

works.

I dont want to rewrite a html file, but this is still a confusing behaviour.

Therefore it tried also something like this (and some variations):

rewrite ^/nonexistent.php?url=^(.*)$ /existent.php?url=$1;

which is also not working. (Maybe the syntax is bad)

Any help here? It would be very nice!