Index: Lib/tempfile.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/tempfile.py	(revision 77795)
+++ Lib/tempfile.py	(working copy)
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@
         file = _os.path.join(dir, prefix + name + suffix)
         try:
             _os.mkdir(file, 0700)
-            return file
+            return _os.path.abspath(file)
         except OSError, e:
             if e.errno == _errno.EEXIST:
                 continue # try again
Index: Lib/test/test_tempfile.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_tempfile.py	(revision 77795)
+++ Lib/test/test_tempfile.py	(working copy)
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@
         nsuf  = nbase[len(nbase)-len(suf):]
 
         # check for equality of the absolute paths!
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.isabs(name),
+                         "path '%s' is not an absolute path" % (name))
         self.assertEqual(os.path.abspath(ndir), os.path.abspath(dir),
                          "file '%s' not in directory '%s'" % (name, dir))
         self.assertEqual(npre, pre,
@@ -103,7 +105,7 @@
     def test_get_six_char_str(self):
         # _RandomNameSequence returns a six-character string
         s = self.r.next()
-        self.nameCheck(s, '', '', '')
+        self.nameCheck(os.path.abspath("./" + s), '', '', '')
 
     def test_many(self):
         # _RandomNameSequence returns no duplicate strings (stochastic)
@@ -112,7 +114,7 @@
         r = self.r
         for i in xrange(TEST_FILES):
             s = r.next()
-            self.nameCheck(s, '', '', '')
+            self.nameCheck(os.path.abspath("./" + s), '', '', '')
             self.assertNotIn(s, dict)
             dict[s] = 1
 
@@ -486,6 +488,17 @@
         finally:
             os.rmdir(dir)
 
+    def test_abs_path(self):
+        #mkdtemp verifies existence of absolute paths when given relative path
+        try:
+            cwd = os.getcwd()
+            os.chdir(tempfile.gettempdir())
+            name = self.do_create(dir=".")
+        finally:
+            os.chdir(cwd)
+
+        os.rmdir(name)
+
 test_classes.append(test_mkdtemp)