Generated URL question

[f3rland]

Using that mask :
http://$host/down.php?sfile=$file
It put a / before the $file (http://example.com/down.php?sfile=/exampleFile.txt)

Same thing for :
http://$host/down.php?sfile=$dir$file
it put a / in front of the $dir (http://example.com/down.php?sfile=/folder/exampleFile.txt)

Is there any way to bypass that behaviour?

I would like to have this as a result :
http://example.com/down.php?sfile=folder/exampleFile.txt
instead of
http://example.com/down.php?sfile=/folder/exampleFile.txt

Thanks for that soft! save a lot of time and headhache!