diff --git a/Annex.hs b/Annex.hs
index dc3466e3ee..02d4fa0354 100644
--- a/Annex.hs
+++ b/Annex.hs
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ newState c r = do
  - any necessary git repo fixups. -}
 new :: Git.Repo -> IO AnnexState
 new r = do
-	r' <- Git.Config.read =<< Git.relPath r
+	r' <- Git.Config.read r
 	let c = extractGitConfig FromGitConfig r'
 	newState c =<< fixupRepo r' c
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 09043473f9..2667075cc2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ git-annex (8.20210128) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
     transfer progress consistently enough.
   * When annex.stalldetection is not enabled and a likely stall is
     detected, display a suggestion to enable it.
+  * When a git remote is configured with an absolute path, use that
+    path, rather than making it relative.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:34:32 -0400
 
diff --git a/Command/Map.hs b/Command/Map.hs
index 4f34190011..7af7db08c0 100644
--- a/Command/Map.hs
+++ b/Command/Map.hs
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ absRepo reference r
 	| Git.repoIsUrl reference = return $ Git.Construct.localToUrl reference r
 	| Git.repoIsUrl r = return r
 	| otherwise = liftIO $ do
-		r' <- Git.Construct.fromAbsPath =<< absPath (Git.repoPath r)
+		r' <- Git.Construct.fromPath =<< absPath (Git.repoPath r)
 		r'' <- safely $ flip Annex.eval Annex.gitRepo =<< Annex.new r'
 		return (fromMaybe r' r'')
 
diff --git a/Git/Construct.hs b/Git/Construct.hs
index de896bbe59..af7bb0557b 100644
--- a/Git/Construct.hs
+++ b/Git/Construct.hs
@@ -57,35 +57,34 @@ fromCwd = getCurrentDirectory >>= seekUp
 
 {- Local Repo constructor, accepts a relative or absolute path. -}
 fromPath :: RawFilePath -> IO Repo
-fromPath dir = fromAbsPath =<< absPath dir
+fromPath dir
+	-- When dir == "foo/.git", git looks for "foo/.git/.git",
+	-- and failing that, uses "foo" as the repository.
+	| (P.pathSeparator `B.cons` ".git") `B.isSuffixOf` canondir =
+		ifM (doesDirectoryExist $ fromRawFilePath dir </> ".git")
+			( ret dir
+			, ret (P.takeDirectory canondir)
+			)
+	| otherwise = ifM (doesDirectoryExist (fromRawFilePath dir))
+		( checkGitDirFile dir >>= maybe (ret dir) (pure . newFrom)
+		-- git falls back to dir.git when dir doesn't
+		-- exist, as long as dir didn't end with a
+		-- path separator
+		, if dir == canondir
+			then ret (dir <> ".git")
+			else ret dir
+		)
+  where
+	ret = pure . newFrom . LocalUnknown
+	canondir = P.dropTrailingPathSeparator dir
 
 {- Local Repo constructor, requires an absolute path to the repo be
  - specified. -}
 fromAbsPath :: RawFilePath -> IO Repo
 fromAbsPath dir
-	| absoluteGitPath dir = hunt
+	| absoluteGitPath dir = fromPath dir
 	| otherwise =
 		error $ "internal error, " ++ show dir ++ " is not absolute"
-  where
-	ret = pure . newFrom . LocalUnknown
-	canondir = P.dropTrailingPathSeparator dir
-	{- When dir == "foo/.git", git looks for "foo/.git/.git",
-	 - and failing that, uses "foo" as the repository. -}
-	hunt
-		| (P.pathSeparator `B.cons` ".git") `B.isSuffixOf` canondir =
-			ifM (doesDirectoryExist $ fromRawFilePath dir </> ".git")
-				( ret dir
-				, ret (P.takeDirectory canondir)
-				)
-		| otherwise = ifM (doesDirectoryExist (fromRawFilePath dir))
-			( checkGitDirFile dir >>= maybe (ret dir) (pure . newFrom)
-			-- git falls back to dir.git when dir doesn't
-			-- exist, as long as dir didn't end with a
-			-- path separator
-			, if dir == canondir
-				then ret (dir <> ".git")
-				else ret dir
-			)
 
 {- Construct a Repo for a remote's url.
  -
diff --git a/Git/CurrentRepo.hs b/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
index 25bdc5c635..9261eabca1 100644
--- a/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
+++ b/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 module Git.CurrentRepo where
 
 import Common
+import Git
 import Git.Types
 import Git.Construct
 import qualified Git.Config
@@ -46,12 +47,12 @@ get = do
 	wt <- maybe (worktree (location r)) Just
 		<$> getpathenvprefix "GIT_WORK_TREE" prefix
 	case wt of
-		Nothing -> return r
+		Nothing -> relPath r
 		Just d -> do
 			curr <- R.getCurrentDirectory
 			unless (d `dirContains` curr) $
 				setCurrentDirectory (fromRawFilePath d)
-			return $ addworktree wt r
+			relPath $ addworktree wt r
   where
 	getpathenv s = do
 		v <- getEnv s
diff --git a/Git/Repair.hs b/Git/Repair.hs
index 034d7e98dc..6d9aeec992 100644
--- a/Git/Repair.hs
+++ b/Git/Repair.hs
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ retrieveMissingObjects missing referencerepo r
 	| otherwise = withTmpDir "tmprepo" $ \tmpdir -> do
 		unlessM (boolSystem "git" [Param "init", File tmpdir]) $
 			error $ "failed to create temp repository in " ++ tmpdir
-		tmpr <- Config.read =<< Construct.fromAbsPath (toRawFilePath tmpdir)
+		tmpr <- Config.read =<< Construct.fromPath (toRawFilePath tmpdir)
 		rs <- Construct.fromRemotes r
 		stillmissing <- pullremotes tmpr rs fetchrefstags missing
 		if S.null (knownMissing stillmissing)
diff --git a/Remote/Bup.hs b/Remote/Bup.hs
index 6ba638a2df..2da6642d26 100644
--- a/Remote/Bup.hs
+++ b/Remote/Bup.hs
@@ -287,11 +287,11 @@ bup2GitRemote :: BupRepo -> IO Git.Repo
 bup2GitRemote "" = do
 	-- bup -r "" operates on ~/.bup
 	h <- myHomeDir
-	Git.Construct.fromAbsPath $ toRawFilePath $ h </> ".bup"
+	Git.Construct.fromPath $ toRawFilePath $ h </> ".bup"
 bup2GitRemote r
 	| bupLocal r = 
 		if "/" `isPrefixOf` r
-			then Git.Construct.fromAbsPath (toRawFilePath r)
+			then Git.Construct.fromPath (toRawFilePath r)
 			else giveup "please specify an absolute path"
 	| otherwise = Git.Construct.fromUrl $ "ssh://" ++ host ++ slash dir
   where
diff --git a/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist.mdwn b/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist.mdwn
index 0b64b968e6..4235bf3998 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist.mdwn
@@ -29,3 +29,7 @@ git-annex is critical infrastructure for me. There is no day without it. Thx muc
 
 
 [[!tag projects/datalad]]
+
+> So there's an OSX bug here, and git-annex has been made to use
+> an absolute path to a remote when it has one, which can be used to work
+> around the OSX bug. [[done]] --[[Joey]]
diff --git a/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist/comment_7_2899ef72aa2a5488eb945d14f7a2d76e._comment b/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist/comment_7_2899ef72aa2a5488eb945d14f7a2d76e._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fc367bb9c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/git-annex_get__58___createDirectory__58___does_not_exist/comment_7_2899ef72aa2a5488eb945d14f7a2d76e._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 7"""
+ date="2021-02-08T15:54:58Z"
+ content="""
+Agreed, what you show in the stackoverflow post can only be an OSX bug.
+
+Using a relative path for the current repository does avoid using long
+absolute paths, and also has a minor benefit of letting the repository be
+moved while git-annex is running and it still accessing the right files.
+
+Neither benefit applies to the paths to remotes. I think the only
+reason relative paths are being used for them is that the same code
+is used to operate on them as on the local repository.
+
+I've made some changes that will make it use absolute paths when the
+remote has an absolute path.
+"""]]