multiple slashes on url: how to remove?

Question

Based on code found here: remove multiple trailing slashes mod_rewrite

I have the following htaccess

Options +FollowSymLinks
DirectorySlash Off
RewriteEngine on
RewriteOptions inherit
RewriteBase /

#
# remove multiple slashes from url
#
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=""
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]+\s//+(.*)\sHTTP/[0-9.]+$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]+\s(.*/)/+\sHTTP/[0-9.]+$
RewriteRule .* http://%{HTTP_HOST}/%1 [R=301,L]

#
# Remove multiple slashes anywhere in URL
#
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^(.*)//(.*)$
RewriteRule . %1/%2 [R=301,L]

Yet i found out the G-Bot has crawled this url: http://www.example.com/aaa/bbb/////////bbb-ccc/bbb-ddd.htm. (aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, are keywords in url, not to be taken litraly - i jut show the pattern of the url)

Testing the above url in by live server i found out that the slash removal does not work.

Anyone can offer any tips or improvement to the the existing code? Thank you

EDIT 1
@Sylwester provided the following code

# if match set environment variable and start over
RewriteRule ^(.*?)//+(.*)$ $1/$2 [E=REDIR:1,N]

# if done at least one. redirect with 301
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIR} 1
RewriteRule ^/(.*) /$1 [R=301,L]

It is not working either. I still see the ////// inside the url.
I have put this set of rules at the very top of my htaccess file, right below the " RewriteBase /", so as not to be affected by other rules, yet... nothing.
Any other suggestion?

So why do the answers in that other question not work for you? — JJJ, Jun 18 '13 at 13:33
I managed to find the answer in a link you provided. I bet you can also. — Sylwester, Jun 18 '13 at 13:39
@Sylwester so you read the article, tested it and post your answer.. you are fast... care to enlighten me also? — andrew, Jun 18 '13 at 13:45
I have updated my answer. I have tested it and it works for me in an .htaccess. My original answer was only tested in global config. — Sylwester, Jun 19 '13 at 15:44

Sylwester · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-19T15:43:21.613

Per directory and .htaccess is tricky since apache actually have removed redundant slashed for us. Eg. there is no match for //+ anymore so we check the %{REQUEST_URI} since it has the original URI while the rewrite rule need to match anything:

# NB: Only works for per directory and .htaccess
# Needs "AllowOverride All" in global config for .htaccess 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase "/"

Options +FollowSymlinks
# Check if the REQUEST_URI has redundant slashes
# and redirect to self if it has (which apache has cleaned up already)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} //+
RewriteRule ^(.*) $1 [R=301,L]

If you can add global config I would have prefered this in the virtual host instead:

RewriteEngine On
# if match set environment variable and start over
RewriteRule ^(.*?)//+(.*)$ $1/$2 [E=REDIR:1,N]

# if done at least one. redirect with 301
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIR} 1
RewriteRule ^/(.*) /$1 [R=301,L]

i have tested your code and noting. See my edit1 section in original post. — andrew, Jun 19 '13 at 06:37

multiple slashes on url: how to remove?

1 Answers1