diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 3fff9e8..8b7b2dc 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: gobbler
-Version: 0.3.6
-Date: 2024-08-27
+Version: 0.3.7
+Date: 2024-09-15
 Title: Interface to the gobbler service
 Description:
     Friendly interface to the gobbler service.
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index d1ddbf7..592b906 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -33,3 +33,4 @@ importFrom(jsonlite,fromJSON)
 importFrom(jsonlite,toJSON)
 importFrom(utils,URLencode)
 importFrom(utils,download.file)
+importFrom(utils,head)
diff --git a/R/startGobbler.R b/R/startGobbler.R
index 441bc6e..be6bb67 100644
--- a/R/startGobbler.R
+++ b/R/startGobbler.R
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 #' 
 #' @export
 #' @importFrom utils download.file
-startGobbler <- function(staging=tempfile(), registry=tempfile(), port = NULL, wait = 1, version = "0.3.2", overwrite = FALSE) {
+startGobbler <- function(staging=tempfile(), registry=tempfile(), port = NULL, wait = 1, version = "0.3.4", overwrite = FALSE) {
     if (!is.null(running$active)) {
         return(list(new=FALSE, staging=running$staging, registry=running$registry, port=running$port, url=assemble_url(running$port)))
     }
diff --git a/R/uploadDirectory.R b/R/uploadDirectory.R
index 860f43f..4e354de 100644
--- a/R/uploadDirectory.R
+++ b/R/uploadDirectory.R
@@ -54,15 +54,17 @@ uploadDirectory <- function(project, asset, version, directory, staging, url, pr
                 if (!suppressWarnings(file.link(src, dest)) && !file.copy(src, dest)) {
                     stop("failed to link or copy '", p, "' to the staging directory")
                 }
-            } else if (!startsWith(src.link, "/")) { # i.e., not a link to an absolute path.
+
+            } else if (.has_valid_link(src.link, p)) {
+                if (!file.symlink(src.link, dest)) {
+                    stop("failed to create a symlink for '", p, "' in the staging directory")
+                }
+
+            } else {
                 full.src <- normalizePath(file.path(dirname(src), src.link))
                 if (!suppressWarnings(file.link(full.src, dest)) && !file.copy(full.src, dest)) {
                     stop("failed to link or copy '", p, "' to the staging directory")
                 }
-            } else {
-                if (!file.symlink(src.link, dest)) {
-                    stop("failed to create a symlink for '", p, "' in the staging directory")
-                }
             }
         }
         directory <- new.dir
@@ -86,3 +88,29 @@ uploadDirectory <- function(project, asset, version, directory, staging, url, pr
 
     invisible(NULL)
 }
+
+#' @importFrom utils head
+.has_valid_link <- function(target, link.path) {
+    # Assuming Unix-style file paths, who uses a Windows HPC anyway?
+    if (startsWith(target, "/")) {
+        return(TRUE)
+    }
+
+    pre.length <- length(strsplit(link.path, "/")[[1]]) - 1L
+    post.fragments <- head(strsplit(target, "/")[[1]], -1L)
+
+    for (x in post.fragments) {
+        if (x == ".") {
+            next
+        } else if (x == "..") {
+            pre.length <- pre.length - 1L
+            if (pre.length < 0L) {
+                return(FALSE)
+            }
+        } else {
+            pre.length <- pre.length + 1L
+        }
+    }
+
+    TRUE
+}
diff --git a/man/startGobbler.Rd b/man/startGobbler.Rd
index e346376..471616f 100644
--- a/man/startGobbler.Rd
+++ b/man/startGobbler.Rd
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ startGobbler(
   registry = tempfile(),
   port = NULL,
   wait = 1,
-  version = "0.3.2",
+  version = "0.3.4",
   overwrite = FALSE
 )
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-upload.R b/tests/testthat/test-upload.R
index 0d78445..e149c44 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-upload.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-upload.R
@@ -70,9 +70,13 @@ test_that("upload works as expected for relative links", {
     dest <- tempfile()
     dir.create(dest)
     write(file=file.path(dest, "blah.txt"), letters)
-    file.symlink("blah.txt", file.path(dest, "whee.txt"))
+    file.symlink("blah.txt", file.path(dest, "whee.txt")) # relative links within the directory are preserved.
     dir.create(file.path(dest, "foo"))
-    file.symlink("../whee.txt", file.path(dest, "foo/bar.txt"))
+    file.symlink("../whee.txt", file.path(dest, "foo/bar.txt")) 
+
+    outside <- tempfile(tmpdir=dirname(dest))
+    write(file=outside, "FOOBLEWOOBLE")
+    file.symlink(file.path("../../", basename(outside)), file.path(dest, "foo/outer.txt")) # relative links outside the directory are lost.
 
     uploadDirectory(
         project="test-more-upload", 
@@ -84,10 +88,12 @@ test_that("upload works as expected for relative links", {
     )
 
     man <- fetchManifest("test-more-upload", "nicole", "1", registry=info$registry)
-    expect_identical(sort(names(man)), c("blah.txt", "foo/bar.txt", "whee.txt"))
-    expect_null(man[["whee"]]$link)
-    expect_null(man[["foo/bar.txt"]]$link)
+    expect_identical(sort(names(man)), c("blah.txt", "foo/bar.txt", "foo/outer.txt", "whee.txt"))
+    expect_false(is.null(man[["whee.txt"]]$link))
+    expect_null(man[["foo/outer.txt"]]$link)
+    expect_false(is.null(man[["foo/bar.txt"]]$link))
     expect_null(man[["blah.txt"]]$link)
+    expect_identical(13L, man[["foo/outer.txt"]]$size)
     expect_identical(man[["whee.txt"]]$size, man[["foo/bar.txt"]]$size)
     expect_identical(man[["whee.txt"]]$size, man[["blah.txt"]]$size)
 })