Topic: using .htaccess to "change" directory structure

[Hotaru]

Xitami is the server I am used to, but now I need to help a site using Apache clean up their URLs

They decided the canonical root for their site will be
http://example.com/docs/index.html

Some printed materials have URLs like this:
http://example.com/items/lists/docs/example.pdf
which now needs to go to:
http://example.com/docs/example.pdf

But there are also URLs like this:
http://example.com/docs/items/lists/example.pdf
which now needs to go to:
http://example.com/docs/items/lists/example.pdf

Also,
http://*.example.com/*
and
http://example.com/* ;except for /docs/*
now go to the canonical root.

So now, what rules can I use to accomplish all this?

[James Blond]

A rewriting with a .htaccess file in your /items/lists/docs folder

Quick and dirty, but that should work.