diff --git a/src/buffer_manager.cc b/src/buffer_manager.cc
index 95a27df4..d6dc9ae0 100644
--- a/src/buffer_manager.cc
+++ b/src/buffer_manager.cc
@@ -25,9 +25,11 @@ BufferManager::~BufferManager()
 Buffer* BufferManager::create_buffer(String name, Buffer::Flags flags,
                                      StringView data, timespec fs_timestamp)
 {
+    auto path = real_path(parse_filename(name));
     for (auto& buf : m_buffers)
     {
-        if (buf->name() == name)
+        if (buf->name() == name or
+            (buf->flags() & Buffer::Flags::File and buf->name() == path))
             throw name_not_unique();
     }
 
diff --git a/src/file.cc b/src/file.cc
index 6773e6e0..fdca896f 100644
--- a/src/file.cc
+++ b/src/file.cc
@@ -90,7 +90,10 @@ String real_path(StringView filename)
 
         auto it = find(existing.rbegin(), existing.rend(), '/');
         if (it == existing.rend())
-            return filename.str();
+        {
+            char cwd[1024];
+            return format("{}/{}", getcwd(cwd, 1024), filename);
+        }
 
         existing = StringView{existing.begin(), it.base()-1};
         non_existing = StringView{it.base(), filename.end()};