diff --git a/dtool/src/dtoolutil/filename.cxx b/dtool/src/dtoolutil/filename.cxx
index cd90e619b7..7b45bd2ae3 100644
--- a/dtool/src/dtoolutil/filename.cxx
+++ b/dtool/src/dtoolutil/filename.cxx
@@ -917,7 +917,7 @@ standardize() {
   while (p < _filename.length()) {
     size_t slash = _filename.find('/', p);
     string component = _filename.substr(p, slash - p);
-    if (component == ".") {
+    if (component == "." && p != 0) {
       // Ignore /./.
     } else if (component == ".." && !components.empty() &&
                !(components.back() == "..")) {