[linux] How to concatenate two strings to build a complete path

The following script catenates several (relative/absolute) paths (BASEPATH) with a relative path (SUBDIR):

shopt -s extglob
SUBDIR="subdir"
for BASEPATH in '' / base base/ base// /base /base/ /base//; do
  echo "BASEPATH = \"$BASEPATH\" --> ${BASEPATH%%+(/)}${BASEPATH:+/}$SUBDIR"
done

The output of which is:

BASEPATH = "" --> subdir
BASEPATH = "/" --> /subdir
BASEPATH = "base" --> base/subdir
BASEPATH = "base/" --> base/subdir
BASEPATH = "base//" --> base/subdir
BASEPATH = "/base" --> /base/subdir
BASEPATH = "/base/" --> /base/subdir
BASEPATH = "/base//" --> /base/subdir

The shopt -s extglob is only necessary to allow BASEPATH to end on multiple slashes (which is probably nonsense). Without extended globing you can just use:

echo ${BASEPATH%%/}${BASEPATH:+/}$SUBDIR

which would result in the less neat but still working:

BASEPATH = "" --> subdir
BASEPATH = "/" --> /subdir
BASEPATH = "base" --> base/subdir
BASEPATH = "base/" --> base/subdir
BASEPATH = "base//" --> base//subdir
BASEPATH = "/base" --> /base/subdir
BASEPATH = "/base/" --> /base/subdir
BASEPATH = "/base//" --> /base//subdir