diff --git a/Tools/PathResolver/Root/PathResolver.cxx b/Tools/PathResolver/Root/PathResolver.cxx
index 3f8361b21cf55f870544cd18cc31a7f9f6712626..e531ba8b46e0bdf586f95f1a266d52029b5cda8d 100644
--- a/Tools/PathResolver/Root/PathResolver.cxx
+++ b/Tools/PathResolver/Root/PathResolver.cxx
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
-  Copyright (C) 2002-2019 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration
+  Copyright (C) 2002-2020 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration
 */
 
 #include "PathResolver/PathResolver.h"
@@ -203,6 +203,12 @@ PathResolver::find_file(const std::string& logical_file_name,
   System::getEnv(search_path, path_list);
 #endif
 
+#ifndef XAOD_ANALYSIS
+  if (!logical_file_name.empty() && logical_file_name[0]=='/') {
+    msg(MSG::ERROR) << "Use of an absolute file name: " << logical_file_name << endmsg;
+  }
+#endif
+
   return (find_file_from_list (logical_file_name, path_list, search_type));
 }
 
diff --git a/Tools/PathResolver/test/PathResolver.xml b/Tools/PathResolver/test/PathResolver.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 87c9745b2369f70ce4dee30cc36dfb41a6f0bf73..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/Tools/PathResolver/test/PathResolver.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0"?>
-<atn>
-   <TEST name="PathResolverTest" type="makecheck" suite="Examples">
-      <package>Tools/PathResolver</package>
-      <timelimit>40</timelimit>
-      <author> Paolo Calafiura </author>
-      <mailto> pcalafiura@lbl.gov, snyder@bnl.gov, binet@cern.ch</mailto>
-      <expectations>
-         <errorMessage>Athena exited abnormally</errorMessage>
-         <errorMessage>differ</errorMessage>
-         <warningMessage> # WARNING_MESSAGE : post.sh> ERROR</warningMessage>
-         <successMessage>check ok</successMessage>
-         <returnValue>0</returnValue>
-      </expectations>
-   </TEST>
-</atn>