diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 909bfaebe..dd773ea63 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
 
 * starteam checkout can now handle deleted labels.  Bugzilla Report 17646.
 
+* The Unix wrapper script failed if you invoked it as a relative
+  symlink and ANT_HOME has not been set.  Bugzilla Report 17721.
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 * The filesetmanifest attribute of <jar> has been reenabled.
diff --git a/src/script/ant b/src/script/ant
index 402499690..79be891c1 100644
--- a/src/script/ant
+++ b/src/script/ant
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ if [ -z "$ANT_HOME" ] ; then
   while [ -h "$PRG" ] ; do
     ls=`ls -ld "$PRG"`
     link=`expr "$ls" : '.*-> \(.*\)$'`
-    if expr "$link" : '.*/.*' > /dev/null; then
+    if expr "$link" : '/.*' > /dev/null; then
 	PRG="$link"
     else
 	PRG=`dirname "$PRG"`"/$link"