$re = '~(?<![^/])(?!\.\.(?![^/]))[^/]+/\.\.(?:/|$)~m';
$str = '"folders/folder1/folder5/../../folder2" -> "folders/folder2"
"folders/folder1/../../../folder2" -> "../folder2"
"folders/folder1/folder5/../folder2" -> "folders/folder1/folder2"';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php