public static String stripLeadingSeparators (String path) {
        if (path.length() == 0) {
            return path;
        }

        if (path.charAt(0) != '/') {
            return path;
        }

        int ii;
        for (ii = 0; ii < path.length(); ii++) {
            if (path.charAt(ii) != '/') {
                break;
            }
        }

        return path.substring(ii);
    }