diff --git a/lisp/org-publish.el b/lisp/org-publish.el
index 38e1c7b..2c42685 100644
--- a/lisp/org-publish.el
+++ b/lisp/org-publish.el
@@ -414,6 +414,9 @@ PUB-DIR is the publishing directory."
 	     (init-buf (current-buffer))
 	     (init-point (point))
 	     (init-buf-string (buffer-string))
+             ;; dirty hack to allow symlinking; this is likely to
+             ;; break stuff --rotty
+             (buffer-file-name filename)
 	     export-buf-or-file)
 	;; run hooks before exporting
 	(run-hooks 'org-publish-before-export-hook)
@@ -501,8 +504,8 @@ See `org-publish-org-to' to the list of arguments."
     (setq tmp-pub-dir
 	  (file-name-directory
 	   (concat pub-dir
-		   (and (string-match (regexp-quote base-dir) ftname)
-			(substring ftname (match-end 0))))))
+		   (and (string-match (regexp-quote base-dir) filename)
+			(substring filename (match-end 0))))))
     (if (listp publishing-function)
 	;; allow chain of publishing functions
 	(mapc (lambda (f)