diff --git a/src/EnergyPlus/FileSystem.cc b/src/EnergyPlus/FileSystem.cc
index 069b8f9ea7f..cbda3333ec0 100644
--- a/src/EnergyPlus/FileSystem.cc
+++ b/src/EnergyPlus/FileSystem.cc
@@ -126,9 +126,14 @@ namespace FileSystem {
         }
 
         std::string pathTail;
-        if (parentPath == ".")
+        std::string currentDir = ".";
+        std::string currentDirWithSep = currentDir + DataStringGlobals::pathChar;
+        if ((parentPath == currentDir || parentPath == currentDirWithSep) && path.find(currentDirWithSep) == std::string::npos)
+            // If parent path is the current directory and the original path does not already contain
+            // the current directory in the string, then leave the path tail as-is.
             pathTail = path;
         else
+            // otherwise strip off any preceding content from the path tail
             pathTail = path.substr(parentPath.size(), path.size() - parentPath.size());
 
         char *absolutePathTemp = realpath(parentPath.c_str(), NULL);
diff --git a/tst/EnergyPlus/unit/FileSystem.unit.cc b/tst/EnergyPlus/unit/FileSystem.unit.cc
index 1140b491526..25f64672c1a 100644
--- a/tst/EnergyPlus/unit/FileSystem.unit.cc
+++ b/tst/EnergyPlus/unit/FileSystem.unit.cc
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
 // EnergyPlus Headers
 #include <iostream>
 #include <fstream>
+#include <EnergyPlus/DataStringGlobals.hh>
 #include <EnergyPlus/FileSystem.hh>
 
 
@@ -95,3 +96,15 @@ TEST(FileSystem, movefile_test)
     EnergyPlus::FileSystem::removeFile(filename);
     EnergyPlus::FileSystem::removeFile(filename_temp);
 }
+
+TEST(FileSystem, getAbsolutePath)
+{
+    std::string pathName = "FileSystemTest.idf";
+    std::string absPathName = EnergyPlus::FileSystem::getAbsolutePath(pathName);
+    EXPECT_TRUE(absPathName.find(pathName) != std::string::npos); // Check that the path name appears in the absolute path
+
+    std::string currentDirWithSep = std::string(".") + EnergyPlus::DataStringGlobals::pathChar;
+    pathName =  currentDirWithSep + std::string("FileSystemTest.idf");  // e.g., "./FileSystemTest.idf"
+    absPathName = EnergyPlus::FileSystem::getAbsolutePath(pathName);
+    EXPECT_FALSE(absPathName.find(currentDirWithSep) != std::string::npos); // Make sure "./" doesn't appear in absolute path
+}