diff --git a/Frameworks/io/src/path.cc b/Frameworks/io/src/path.cc
index 04cef7c8..a4f8caa0 100644
--- a/Frameworks/io/src/path.cc
+++ b/Frameworks/io/src/path.cc
@@ -178,6 +178,17 @@ namespace path
 		return !path.empty() && path[0] == '/' ? normalize(path) : normalize(base + "/" + path);
 	}
 
+	bool is_absolute (std::string const& path)
+	{
+		if(!path.empty() && path[0] == '/')
+		{
+			std::string p = normalize(path);
+			if(p != "/.." && p.find("/../") != 0)
+				return true;
+		}
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	std::string with_tilde (std::string const& p)
 	{
 		std::string const& base = home();
diff --git a/Frameworks/io/src/path.h b/Frameworks/io/src/path.h
index 8ef175b4..5f8e2f0d 100644
--- a/Frameworks/io/src/path.h
+++ b/Frameworks/io/src/path.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ namespace path
 
 	PUBLIC std::string join (std::string const& base, std::string const& path); // this will normalize the (resulting) path
 
+	PUBLIC bool is_absolute (std::string const& path);
 	PUBLIC std::string with_tilde (std::string const& path);        // /Users/me/foo.html.erb → ~/foo.html.erb
 	PUBLIC std::string relative_to (std::string const& path, std::string const& base); // /Users/me/foo.html.erb (arg: ~/Desktop) → ../foo.html.erb
 
diff --git a/Frameworks/io/tests/t_path.cc b/Frameworks/io/tests/t_path.cc
index 76c68d22..12c688fd 100644
--- a/Frameworks/io/tests/t_path.cc
+++ b/Frameworks/io/tests/t_path.cc
@@ -93,6 +93,26 @@ public:
 		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::join("foo/bar", "fud"),   "foo/bar/fud");
 	}
 
+	void test_is_absolute ()
+	{
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("../"),         false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("../foo"),      false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("./"),          false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/."),          true);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/.."),         false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/../"),        false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/../tmp"),     false); // this path is actually valid, so might revise path::normalize()
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/./.."),       false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/./../tmp"),   false); // this path is actually valid, so might revise path::normalize()
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/./foo"),      true);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("//."),         true);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("//../../foo"), false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("//./foo"),     true);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/foo/.."),     true);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("/foo/../.."),  false);
+		TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(path::is_absolute("foo"),         false);
+	}
+
 	void test_with_tilde ()
 	{
 		using namespace path;