Efficient Redirect code for the htaccess

Looking for an efficient Redirect code for the htaccess. There are about 200 links (practically all requests will go through t开发者_如何学编程he redirect)

Goals:

1. http://example.com/pages.shtml to be redirected to http://example.com/pages

2. should be 301 redirect keeping in mind page rank preservation

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RewriteRule ^([^/]+)\.shtml http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]