diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index b380e25ba..fd0bfb959 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
 * JUnitResultFormater has two additional methods that must be
   implemented by custom formatters.
 
+* Ant will no longer use the canonical version of a path internally -
+  this may yield different results on filesystems that support
+  symbolic links.
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Project.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Project.java
index 08bbe5259..edc73c53c 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Project.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Project.java
@@ -314,19 +314,17 @@ public class Project {
 
     // match basedir attribute in xml
     public void setBasedir(String baseD) throws BuildException {
-        try {
-            setBaseDir(new File(new File(baseD).getCanonicalPath()));
-        } catch (IOException ioe) {
-            String msg = "Can't set basedir " + baseD + " due to " +
-                ioe.getMessage();
-            throw new BuildException(msg);
-        }
+        setBaseDir(new File(baseD));
     }
 
-    public void setBaseDir(File baseDir) {
-        this.baseDir = baseDir;
-        setProperty( "basedir", baseDir.getAbsolutePath());
-        String msg = "Project base dir set to: " + baseDir;
+    public void setBaseDir(File baseDir) throws BuildException {
+        if (!baseDir.exists()) 
+            throw new BuildException("Basedir " + baseDir.getAbsolutePath() + " does not exist");
+        if (!baseDir.isDirectory()) 
+            throw new BuildException("Basedir " + baseDir.getAbsolutePath() + " is not a directory");
+        this.baseDir = new File(baseDir.getAbsolutePath());
+        setProperty( "basedir", this.baseDir.getPath());
+        String msg = "Project base dir set to: " + this.baseDir;
         log(msg, MSG_VERBOSE);
     }
 
@@ -335,7 +333,7 @@ public class Project {
             try {
                 setBasedir(".");
             } catch (BuildException ex) {
-              ex.printStackTrace();
+                ex.printStackTrace();
             }
         }
         return baseDir;
@@ -553,13 +551,7 @@ public class Project {
 
         // deal with absolute files
         if (fileName.startsWith(File.separator)) {
-            try {
-                return new File(new File(fileName).getCanonicalPath());
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-                log("IOException getting canonical path for " + fileName 
-                    + ": " + e.getMessage(), MSG_ERR);
-                return new File(fileName);
-            }
+            return new File(fileName);
         }
 
         // Eliminate consecutive slashes after the drive spec
@@ -608,14 +600,7 @@ public class Project {
             }
         }
 
-        try {
-            return new File(file.getCanonicalPath());
-        }
-        catch (IOException e) {
-            log("IOException getting canonical path for " + file + ": " +
-                e.getMessage(), MSG_ERR);
-            return new File(file.getAbsolutePath());
-        }
+        return new File(file.getAbsolutePath());
     }
 
     public File resolveFile(String fileName) {
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectHelper.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectHelper.java
index 0a29860a9..02ecdfba6 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectHelper.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectHelper.java
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ public class ProjectHelper {
                     if ((new File(baseDir)).isAbsolute()) {
                         project.setBasedir(baseDir);
                     } else {
-                        project.setBasedir((new File(buildFileParent, baseDir)).getAbsolutePath());
+                        project.setBaseDir(project.resolveFile(baseDir, buildFileParent));
                     }
                 }
             }
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/Path.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/Path.java
index d5e349335..97998e1ad 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/Path.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/Path.java
@@ -112,16 +112,7 @@ public class Path extends DataType implements Cloneable {
         private String[] parts;
 
         public void setLocation(File loc) {
-            try {
-                parts = new String[] {translateFile(loc.getCanonicalPath())};
-            } catch(IOException e) {
-                // XXX I'd like to log something here but if I don't
-                //     have a Project I can't
-                if (project != null) {
-                    project.log(e.getMessage(), Project.MSG_WARN);
-                }
-                parts = new String[] {translateFile(loc.getAbsolutePath())};
-            }
+            parts = new String[] {translateFile(loc.getAbsolutePath())};
         }
 
         public void setPath(String path) {
@@ -304,14 +295,9 @@ public class Path extends DataType implements Cloneable {
                 String[] s = ds.getIncludedFiles();
                 File dir = fs.getDir(project);
                 for (int j=0; j<s.length; j++) {
-                    String canonicalPath;
                     File f = new File(dir, s[j]);
-                    try {
-                        canonicalPath = f.getCanonicalPath();
-                    } catch(IOException e) {
-                        canonicalPath = f.getAbsolutePath();
-                    }
-                    addUnlessPresent(result, translateFile(canonicalPath));
+                    String absolutePath = f.getAbsolutePath();
+                    addUnlessPresent(result, translateFile(absolutePath));
                 } 
             }
         }
@@ -454,12 +440,7 @@ public class Path extends DataType implements Cloneable {
     private static String resolveFile(Project project, String relativeName) {
         if (project != null) {
             File f = project.resolveFile(relativeName);
-            try {
-                return f.getCanonicalPath();
-            } catch(IOException e) {
-                project.log(e.getMessage(), Project.MSG_WARN);
-                return f.getAbsolutePath();
-            }
+            return f.getAbsolutePath();
         }
         return relativeName;
     }