diff --git a/src/Monolog/Handler/RotatingFileHandler.php b/src/Monolog/Handler/RotatingFileHandler.php
index ae2309f8..b8253ba0 100644
--- a/src/Monolog/Handler/RotatingFileHandler.php
+++ b/src/Monolog/Handler/RotatingFileHandler.php
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 namespace Monolog\Handler;
 
 use Monolog\Logger;
+use Monolog\Utils;
 
 /**
  * Stores logs to files that are rotated every day and a limited number of files are kept.
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ class RotatingFileHandler extends StreamHandler
      */
     public function __construct($filename, $maxFiles = 0, $level = Logger::DEBUG, $bubble = true, $filePermission = null, $useLocking = false)
     {
-        $this->filename = $filename;
+        $this->filename = Utils::canonicalizePath($filename);
         $this->maxFiles = (int) $maxFiles;
         $this->nextRotation = new \DateTime('tomorrow');
         $this->filenameFormat = '{filename}-{date}';
diff --git a/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php b/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php
index 27d90e06..7c0dfd22 100644
--- a/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php
+++ b/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 namespace Monolog\Handler;
 
 use Monolog\Logger;
+use Monolog\Utils;
 
 /**
  * Stores to any stream resource
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ class StreamHandler extends AbstractProcessingHandler
         if (is_resource($stream)) {
             $this->stream = $stream;
         } elseif (is_string($stream)) {
-            $this->url = $stream;
+            $this->url = Utils::canonicalizePath($stream);
         } else {
             throw new \InvalidArgumentException('A stream must either be a resource or a string.');
         }
diff --git a/src/Monolog/Utils.php b/src/Monolog/Utils.php
index 180a159d..712b1969 100644
--- a/src/Monolog/Utils.php
+++ b/src/Monolog/Utils.php
@@ -23,6 +23,36 @@ class Utils
         return 'c' === $class[0] && 0 === strpos($class, "class@anonymous\0") ? get_parent_class($class).'@anonymous' : $class;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Makes sure if a relative path is passed in it is turned into an absolute path
+     *
+     * @param string $streamUrl stream URL or path without protocol
+     *
+     * @return string
+     */
+    public static function canonicalizePath($streamUrl)
+    {
+        $prefix = '';
+        if ('file://' === substr($streamUrl, 0, 7)) {
+            $streamUrl = substr($streamUrl, 7);
+            $prefix = 'file://';
+        }
+
+        // other type of stream, not supported
+        if (false !== strpos($streamUrl, '://')) {
+            return $streamUrl;
+        }
+
+        // already absolute
+        if (substr($streamUrl, 0, 1) === '/' || substr($streamUrl, 1, 1) === ':' || substr($streamUrl, 0, 2) === '\\\\') {
+            return $prefix.$streamUrl;
+        }
+
+        $streamUrl = getcwd() . '/' . $streamUrl;
+
+        return $prefix.$streamUrl;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Return the JSON representation of a value
      *
diff --git a/tests/Monolog/UtilsTest.php b/tests/Monolog/UtilsTest.php
index 1ffcc74b..428e02cc 100644
--- a/tests/Monolog/UtilsTest.php
+++ b/tests/Monolog/UtilsTest.php
@@ -13,6 +13,29 @@ namespace Monolog;
 
 class UtilsTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
 {
+    /**
+     * @param string $expected
+     * @param string $input
+     * @dataProvider providePathsToCanonicalize
+     */
+    public function testCanonicalizePath($expected, $input)
+    {
+        $this->assertSame($expected, Utils::canonicalizePath($input));
+    }
+
+    public function providePathsToCanonicalize()
+    {
+        return array(
+            array('/foo/bar', '/foo/bar'),
+            array('file://'.getcwd().'/bla', 'file://bla'),
+            array(getcwd().'/bla', 'bla'),
+            array(getcwd().'/./bla', './bla'),
+            array('file:///foo/bar', 'file:///foo/bar'),
+            array('any://foo', 'any://foo'),
+            array('\\\\network\path', '\\\\network\path'),
+        );
+    }
+
     /**
      * @param int    $code
      * @param string $msg