diff --git a/linux-user/main.c b/linux-user/main.c
index 86d04cca3c..c08c73fd80 100644
--- a/linux-user/main.c
+++ b/linux-user/main.c
@@ -772,8 +772,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     }
 
     /* Resolve executable file name to full path name */
-    if (realpath(exec_path, real_exec_path)) {
-        exec_path = real_exec_path;
+    /* Keep how we started the program in exec_path, e.g. "./my_program" */
+    /* Store real path in real_exec_path, e.g. "/usr/local/bin/my_program" */
+    if (!realpath(exec_path, real_exec_path)) {
+        printf("Could not resolve %s\n", exec_path);
     }
 
     /*
diff --git a/linux-user/syscall.c b/linux-user/syscall.c
index d3d9fffb54..65bbeb8551 100644
--- a/linux-user/syscall.c
+++ b/linux-user/syscall.c
@@ -8790,9 +8790,9 @@ static int maybe_do_fake_open(CPUArchState *cpu_env, int dirfd,
             return -1;
         }
         if (safe) {
-            return safe_openat(dirfd, exec_path, flags, mode);
+            return safe_openat(dirfd, real_exec_path, flags, mode);
         } else {
-            return openat(dirfd, exec_path, flags, mode);
+            return openat(dirfd, real_exec_path, flags, mode);
         }
     }
 
@@ -8929,9 +8929,9 @@ ssize_t do_guest_readlink(const char *pathname, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
          * Don't worry about sign mismatch as earlier mapping
          * logic would have thrown a bad address error.
          */
-        ret = MIN(strlen(exec_path), bufsiz);
+        ret = MIN(strlen(real_exec_path), bufsiz);
         /* We cannot NUL terminate the string. */
-        memcpy(buf, exec_path, ret);
+        memcpy(buf, real_exec_path, ret);
     } else {
         ret = readlink(path(pathname), buf, bufsiz);
     }
@@ -9022,7 +9022,7 @@ static int do_execv(CPUArchState *cpu_env, int dirfd,
 
     const char *exe = p;
     if (is_proc_myself(p, "exe")) {
-        exe = exec_path;
+        exe = real_exec_path;
     }
     ret = is_execveat
         ? safe_execveat(dirfd, exe, argp, envp, flags)
@@ -11033,9 +11033,9 @@ static abi_long do_syscall1(CPUArchState *cpu_env, int num, abi_long arg1,
                  * Don't worry about sign mismatch as earlier mapping
                  * logic would have thrown a bad address error.
                  */
-                ret = MIN(strlen(exec_path), arg4);
+                ret = MIN(strlen(real_exec_path), arg4);
                 /* We cannot NUL terminate the string. */
-                memcpy(p2, exec_path, ret);
+                memcpy(p2, real_exec_path, ret);
             } else {
                 ret = get_errno(readlinkat(arg1, path(p), p2, arg4));
             }
diff --git a/linux-user/user-internals.h b/linux-user/user-internals.h
index e65373b204..21daf422b7 100644
--- a/linux-user/user-internals.h
+++ b/linux-user/user-internals.h
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #include "exec/translation-block.h"
 
 extern char *exec_path;
+extern char real_exec_path[PATH_MAX];
 void init_task_state(TaskState *ts);
 void task_settid(TaskState *);
 void stop_all_tasks(void);