diff --git a/src/filelist.c b/src/filelist.c
index 8956238276a59167d5a4dbfd93b06732745ccb0d..ebae08d4cb11613487331e63493761c16c27d83f 100644
--- a/src/filelist.c
+++ b/src/filelist.c
@@ -623,7 +623,8 @@ char *feh_absolute_path(char *path)
 	/* I SHOULD be able to just use a simple realpath() here, but dumb * 
 	   old Solaris's realpath doesn't return an absolute path if the
 	   path you give it is relative. Linux and BSD get this right... */
-	getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd));
+	if (getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd)) == NULL)
+		eprintf("Cannot determine working directory:");
 	snprintf(temp, sizeof(temp), "%s/%s", cwd, path);
 	if (realpath(temp, fullpath) != NULL) {
 		ret = estrdup(fullpath);
diff --git a/src/filelist.h b/src/filelist.h
index 79d1e628281f77827aaa232b7193699ed54530f4..91e5fd09129122a428dac8117664d34af5328c99 100644
--- a/src/filelist.h
+++ b/src/filelist.h
@@ -55,6 +55,16 @@ struct __feh_file_info {
 #define FEH_FILE(l) ((feh_file *) l)
 #define FEH_MAX_DIRNAME_LEN 4096
 
+/*
+ * PATH_MAX may not be defined on all systems. Since we only use it in for a
+ * getcwd call in feh_absolute_path, it isn't really worth the effort to malloc
+ * ever-increasing buffers until it fits. Instead, we just set it to 4096 and
+ * have --filelist and --bg-* hiccup if the path is larger.
+ */
+#ifndef PATH_MAX
+#define PATH_MAX 4096
+#endif
+
 enum filelist_recurse { FILELIST_FIRST, FILELIST_CONTINUE, FILELIST_LAST };
 
 enum sort_type {