diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
index ae593555e..5cfa72833 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
@@ -198,8 +198,12 @@ sub preprocess (@) {
 				'" rel="openid2.local_id" />' if $delegate ne 1;
 		}
 		if (exists $params{"xrds-location"} && safeurl($params{"xrds-location"})) {
+			# force url absolute
+			eval q{use URI};
+			error($@) if $@;
+			my $url=URI->new_abs($params{"xrds-location"}, $config{url});
 			push @{$metaheaders{$page}}, '<meta http-equiv="X-XRDS-Location" '.
-				'content="'.encode_entities($params{"xrds-location"}).'" />';
+				'content="'.encode_entities($url).'" />';
 		}
 	}
 	elsif ($key eq 'redir') {
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 8286b7887..24115c177 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+ikiwiki (3.20100916) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+
+  * meta: Ensure that the url specified by xrds-location is absolute.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sun, 19 Sep 2010 20:13:06 -0400
+
 ikiwiki (3.20100915) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * needsbuild hook interface changed; the hooks should now return