that it's a special case that needs fixing. I fail to see how "...//" can ever be intended behaviour in the way you're suggesting it. :)
All of libkpathse and the search system in all programs using it *HEAVILY* depend on // being expanded to all intermediate dirs!! Otherwise we would not have a working TeX system at all, or you would have to copy 20000+ files into one directory. By default Debian $HOME does NOT have a trailing slash. I have installed many many many Debian machines and I have never seen a trailing slash in $HOME. So my assumption is that you changed something on your system. To come back to your problem. Yes, a fix in kpathsea might be something people might be interested, but nobody has come around to do it. And at the same time it is a feature. Best Norbert