Apache Rewrite rules - remove '/'s in URL

Question

I need a Rewrite Rule for apache to rewrite urls like:

http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~dun3/archives/it/programming/fast-dynamic-property-access-using-reflection-emit/33.html

to

http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~dun3/archives/fast-dynamic-property-access-using-reflection-emit/33.html

So, I need to remove all / parts between the "archives" and the last /, preserving the part before the / and after the /.

Answer 1

Something like this should do what you want:

RewriteRule ^(/~dun3/archives/).+?/([^/]+/[^/]+)$ $1$2 [L,R=301]

(The final R=301 part sends a HTTP 301 Moved Permanently header, which I presume is what you want to do, but if not you can simply omit that part.)

Answer 2

RewriteRule ^(.*?)/(.*?)/.*/(.*?)/(.*?)$ $1/$2/$3/$4