title: Why does os.path.realpath remove double slashes at the start of the path, while os.path.abspath does not?
body: <p>On Linux, with Python 3.8:</p>
  <div class="s-table-container">
  <table class="s-table">
  <thead>
  <tr>
  <th>Path</th>
  <th>Result of os.path.realpath</th>
  <th>Result of os.path.abspath</th>
  </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
  <tr>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>'//home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  <td>'//home'</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>'///home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>'////home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  <td>'/home'</td>
  </tr>
  </tbody>
  </table>
  </div>
  <p>Why do the results differ for <code>'//home'</code>?</p>