diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 009bb30bc..f019bb923 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ Glenn Twiggs
 Greg Nelson
 Greg Roodt
 Greg Schueler
+Grégoire Vatry
 Günther Kögel
 Harish Prabandham
 Haroon Rafique
diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 370ce7956..3dc0e0908 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ Fixed bugs:
    where another thread already created the same directory.
    Bugzilla Report 55290
 
+ * <manifestclasspath> created '/' rather than './' for the parent
+   directory of the given jarfile.
+   Bugzilla Report 55049
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
diff --git a/contributors.xml b/contributors.xml
index e3a1bcee2..ffb452b43 100644
--- a/contributors.xml
+++ b/contributors.xml
@@ -576,6 +576,10 @@
     <first>Greg</first>
     <last>Schueler</last>
   </name>
+  <name>
+    <first>Grégoire</first>
+    <last>Vatry</last>
+  </name>
   <name>
     <first>Günther</first>
     <last>Kögel</last>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ManifestClassPath.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ManifestClassPath.java
index 497c0a195..84c21c1e4 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ManifestClassPath.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ManifestClassPath.java
@@ -87,7 +87,11 @@ public class ManifestClassPath extends Task {
             String relPath = null;
             String canonicalPath = null;
             try {
-                relPath = FileUtils.getRelativePath(dir, pathEntry);
+                if (dir.equals(pathEntry)) {
+                    relPath = ".";
+                } else {
+                    relPath = FileUtils.getRelativePath(dir, pathEntry);
+                }
 
                 canonicalPath = pathEntry.getCanonicalPath();
                 // getRelativePath always uses '/' as separator, adapt
diff --git a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/manifestclasspath-test.xml b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/manifestclasspath-test.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..612990b61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/manifestclasspath-test.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
+<project default="antunit"
+         xmlns:au="antlib:org.apache.ant.antunit">
+
+  <import file="../antunit-base.xml" />
+
+  <target name="testRelativePathOfParentDir">
+    <manifestclasspath property="jar.classpath"
+                       jarfile="${basedir}/foo.jar">
+      <classpath path="${basedir}"/>
+    </manifestclasspath>
+    <au:assertPropertyEquals name="jar.classpath" value="./"/>
+  </target>
+</project>