diff -ru perl_20898/lib/File/Spec/VMS.pm perl/lib/File/Spec/VMS.pm
--- perl_20898/lib/File/Spec/VMS.pm	2003-08-21 11:48:45.000000000 -0400
+++ perl/lib/File/Spec/VMS.pm	2003-08-29 15:59:16.000000000 -0400
@@ -412,6 +412,18 @@
         $base = $self->canonpath( $base ) ;
     }
 
+    # Are we even starting $path on the same device as _cwd?  Note that rooted 
+    # logical paths or cwds may be on the same device but the comparison
+    # that ignores device differences is not even a good idea there.
+    # Hence we fall back to returning the absolute $path spec
+    # if there is a case blind device difference of any sort
+    # and we do not even try to call sys$parse().
+    my $path_device = ($self->splitpath( $path, 1 ))[0];
+    my $base_device = ($self->splitpath( $base, 1 ))[0];
+    if ( lc( $path_device ) ne lc( $base_device ) ) {
+        return ( $path ) ;
+    }
+
     # Split up paths
     my ( $path_directories, $path_file ) =
         ($self->splitpath( $path, 1 ))[1,2] ;