Windows - Unix slash directions for setting ArcSDE raster URL

When I manually edit the catalog.xml and enter this info, e.g.,

<format namespace = "NDHUB" enabled = "true" id = "NDHUB_aerialphotos" >
<type>ArcSDE Raster</type>
<url>sde://bnutsch:password@myserver:5151/#NDHUB.AERIALPHOTOS_6INCH</url>
</format>

I get a crash. In the logs I see:

26 Oct 14:48:45 WARN [org.geotools.arcsde.gce] - connectiong via file-hack to ArcSDE Raster: sde:\bnutsch:pass@myserver:5151#NDHUB.AERIALPHOTOS_6INCH
26 Oct 14:48:45 WARN [org.geotools.arcsde.gce] - connectiong via file-hack to ArcSDE Raster: sde:\bnutsch:pass@myserver:5151#NDHUB.AERIALPHOTOS_6INCH
26 Oct 14:48:45 WARN [org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor] - Unhandled Exception thrown: class java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
26 Oct 14:48:45 ERROR [org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/geoserver].[action]] - Servlet.service() for servlet action threw exception
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: ArcSDE Raster URL must be of the form sde://user:pass@sdehost:port/[dbname]#rasterTableName – Got sde:\bnutsch:pass@myserver:5151#NDHUB.AERIALPHOTOS_6INCH

From Saul:

The problem is that in order to allow arbitrary parameter passing
from the geoserver UI to the geotools backend (which takes an Object as
a coverageStore creation parameter) everything gets turned into a File.

So on unix, the following URL gets turned into a file with the following
path:

URL("sde://saul:saul@server/#blah") -> File -> String =
sde:/saul:saul@server/#blah

On windows, the same set of translations leads to

URL("sde://saul:saul@server/#blah") -> File -> String =
sde:\saul:saul@server#blah