diff --git a/Library/Contributions/cmd/brew-unpack.rb b/Library/Contributions/cmd/brew-unpack.rb
index 805af8e421..6e81d8196b 100755
--- a/Library/Contributions/cmd/brew-unpack.rb
+++ b/Library/Contributions/cmd/brew-unpack.rb
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ module Homebrew extend self
     if (dir = ARGV.value('destdir')).nil?
       unpack_dir = Pathname.pwd
     else
-      unpack_dir = Pathname.new(dir).realpath
+      unpack_dir = Pathname.new(dir)
       unpack_dir.mkpath unless unpack_dir.exist?
     end