Worked on the apache/activemq repository to improve the reliability of ActiveMQ deployments by addressing a critical startup issue. Focused on shell scripting and system administration, the work involved normalizing the handling of trailing slashes in the startup script to ensure that environment variables such as ACTIVEMQ_BASE and ACTIVEMQ_HOME consistently resolve to valid configuration and data paths. This fix prevented startup errors caused by incorrect path resolution, reducing operational risk and deployment failures. The technical approach centered on robust path normalization and careful management of environment variables, resulting in more predictable startup behavior and smoother configuration management for ActiveMQ systems.