diff --git a/guix/utils.scm b/guix/utils.scm
index d8ce6ed886..8bd23097bf 100644
--- a/guix/utils.scm
+++ b/guix/utils.scm
@@ -1123,7 +1123,7 @@ (define absolute-dirname
        ;; If there are relative names in %LOAD-PATH, FILE can be relative and
        ;; needs to be canonicalized.
        (if (string-prefix? "/" file)
-           (dirname file)
+           (dirname (canonicalize-path file))
            (canonicalize-path (dirname file)))))))
 
 (define-syntax current-source-directory