diff --git a/scripts/base/frameworks/logging/writers/ascii.zeek b/scripts/base/frameworks/logging/writers/ascii.zeek
index 483656e578..628cf92a83 100644
--- a/scripts/base/frameworks/logging/writers/ascii.zeek
+++ b/scripts/base/frameworks/logging/writers/ascii.zeek
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ export {
   ## Default logs to current directory
 	## Can be redefined to send files into logging directory
 	##
-	const logdir = "." &redef;
+	const logdir = "" &redef;
 
 	## Format of timestamps when writing out JSON. By default, the JSON
 	## formatter will use double values for timestamps which represent the
diff --git a/src/logging/writers/ascii/Ascii.cc b/src/logging/writers/ascii/Ascii.cc
index 5f1da6d68b..a9e1691376 100644
--- a/src/logging/writers/ascii/Ascii.cc
+++ b/src/logging/writers/ascii/Ascii.cc
@@ -457,10 +457,17 @@ bool Ascii::DoInit(const WriterInfo& info, int num_fields, const threading::Fiel
 			ext += gzip_file_extension.empty() ? "gz" : gzip_file_extension;
 			}
 
-		if ( ! logdir.empty() )
+		if ( fname.front() != '/' && ! logdir.empty() )
 			{
-			fname = logdir.empty() ? fname : logdir + "/" + fname;
-			}
+			string path = logdir;
+			std::size_t last = path.find_last_not_of('/');
+
+			if ( last == string::npos ) // Nothing but slashes -- weird but ok...
+				path = "/";
+			else
+				path.erase(last + 1);
+		fname = path + "/" + fname;
+		}
 
 		fname += ext;