Remove leading and trailing slash / in python

def remove_lead_and_trail_slash(s):
    if s.startswith('/'):
        s = s[1:]
    if s.endswith('/'):
        s = s[:-1]
    return s

Unlike str.strip(), this is guaranteed to remove at most one of the slashes on each side.

>>> "/get/category".strip("/")
'get/category'

strip() is the proper way to do this.