Mod_rewrite to remove double directory

Question

I have a URL that follows the below format.

https://example.com/dir/dir/article/

is it possible to rewrite this URL in htaccess to

https://example.com/dir/article/

I have a site where this double directory with the same name exists and i'm looking to strip this out but it still resolve to the correct place. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can use this rule in your site root .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/([^/]+)(/\1/.*)$
RewriteRule ^ %2 [L,NE,R=301]

\\1 is back-reference of directory name matched by first capture group.