diff --git a/pmd/etc/build.xml b/pmd/etc/build.xml
index ded3cc8cfd..1aadc54a7b 100644
--- a/pmd/etc/build.xml
+++ b/pmd/etc/build.xml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@
     <target name="pmd">
         <taskdef name="pmd" classname="net.sourceforge.pmd.ant.PMDTask"/>
         <pmd rulesetfiles="rulesets/imports.xml" shortFilenames="true">
-            <formatter type="html" toFile="foo.html"/>
+            <formatter type="html" toFile="c:\foo.html" isReportFilePathAbsolute="true"/>
             <fileset dir="C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\src\java\lang\">
                 <include name="**/*.java"/>
             </fileset>
diff --git a/pmd/etc/changelog.txt b/pmd/etc/changelog.txt
index 4b23964f66..2eed9e7dce 100644
--- a/pmd/etc/changelog.txt
+++ b/pmd/etc/changelog.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Fixed bug 672742 - grammar typo was hosing up ASTConstructorDeclaration which wa
 Fixed bug 674393 - OnlyOneReturn rule no longer counts returns that are inside anonymous inner classes as being inside the containing method.  Thx to C. Lamont Gilbert for the bug report.
 Fixed bug 674420 - AvoidReassigningParametersRule no longer counts parameter field reassignment as a violation.  Thx to C. Lamont Gilbert for the bug report.
 Fixed bug in OverrideBothEqualsAndHashcodeRule - it no longer bails out with a NullPtrException on interfaces that declare a method signature "equals(Object)".  Thx to Don Leckie for catching that.
+Added an optional Ant task formatter attribute 'isReportFilePathAbsolute'. Thx to Andriy Rozeluk for the feedback.
 
 January 22, 2003 - 1.02:
 Added new rules: ImportFromSamePackageRule, SwitchDensityRule, NullAssignmentRule, UnusedModifierRule, ForLoopShouldBeWhileLoopRule
diff --git a/pmd/etc/doing_the_next_pmd_release.txt b/pmd/etc/doing_the_next_pmd_release.txt
index b41abba1d6..e8a416b8fc 100644
--- a/pmd/etc/doing_the_next_pmd_release.txt
+++ b/pmd/etc/doing_the_next_pmd_release.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+UPDATE THE ANT XDOCS WITH isReportFilePathAbsolute ATTRIBUTE!
+
 Move rulesets/tmp.xml somewhere else
 
 update run.bat to point to pmd-1.02.jar
diff --git a/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/rules/UnusedImportsRuleTest.java b/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/rules/UnusedImportsRuleTest.java
index f36a4436b7..404ab577f2 100644
--- a/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/rules/UnusedImportsRuleTest.java
+++ b/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/rules/UnusedImportsRuleTest.java
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
  */
 package test.net.sourceforge.pmd.rules;
 
-import net.sourceforge.pmd.Report;
 import net.sourceforge.pmd.rules.UnusedImportsRule;
 
 public class UnusedImportsRuleTest extends RuleTst {
@@ -18,22 +17,15 @@ public class UnusedImportsRuleTest extends RuleTst {
     }
 
     public void test1() throws Throwable {
-        Report report = process("UnusedImports1.java", rule);
-        assertEquals(1, report.size());
+        runTest("UnusedImports1.java", 1, rule);
     }
-
     public void test2() throws Throwable {
-        Report report = process("UnusedImports2.java", rule);
-        assertTrue(report.isEmpty());
+        runTest("UnusedImports2.java", 0, rule);
     }
-
     public void test3() throws Throwable {
-        Report report = process("UnusedImports3.java", rule);
-        assertEquals(2, report.size());
+        runTest("UnusedImports3.java", 2, rule);
     }
-
     public void test4() throws Throwable {
-        Report report = process("UnusedImports4.java", rule);
-        assertTrue(report.isEmpty());
+        runTest("UnusedImports4.java", 0, rule);
     }
 }
diff --git a/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTask.java b/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTask.java
index 0ebb67ff6c..2a40160440 100644
--- a/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTask.java
+++ b/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTask.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Writer;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ public class PMDTask extends Task {
     public static class Formatter {
         private Renderer renderer;
         private String toFile;
+        private boolean isReportFilePathAbsolute;
+
         public void setType(String type) {
             if (type.equals("xml")) {
                 renderer = new XMLRenderer();
@@ -43,8 +46,17 @@ public class PMDTask extends Task {
             }
         }
         public void setToFile(String toFile) {this.toFile = toFile;}
+
+        public void setIsReportFilePathAbsolute(boolean value) {this.isReportFilePathAbsolute = value;}
         public Renderer getRenderer() {return renderer;}
-        public String getToFile() {return toFile;}
+
+        public Writer getToFileWriter(String baseDir) throws IOException {
+            String outFile = toFile;
+            if (!isReportFilePathAbsolute) {
+                outFile = baseDir + System.getProperty("file.separator") + toFile;
+            }
+            return new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(new File(outFile)));
+        }
     }
 
     public static class Database {
@@ -192,7 +204,7 @@ public class PMDTask extends Task {
                 Formatter formatter = (Formatter)i.next();
                 String buffer = formatter.getRenderer().render(ctx.getReport()) + EOL;
                 try {
-                    BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(new File(project.getBaseDir() + System.getProperty("file.separator") + formatter.getToFile())));
+                    Writer writer = formatter.getToFileWriter(project.getBaseDir().toString());
                     writer.write(buffer, 0, buffer.length());
                     writer.close();
                 } catch (IOException ioe) {