1. emacs -q 2. M-: (setq find-file-visit-truename t) RET 3. C-x C-f /sudo::/ RET 4. M-: default-directory RET Expected value: /sudo::/ Actual: /sudo::// The actual usability problem that this causes is that running find-file again in the Dired buffer starts with a bad default: Typing C-x C-f tmp RET results in finding /sudo:://tmp which is /tmp rather than /sudo::/tmp The immediate offending code is these lines in find-file-noselect (if find-file-visit-truename (abbreviate-file-name (file-truename filename)) filename))) Tracing the bug: (file-truename "/sudo::/") (tramp-file-name-handler 'file-truename "/sudo::/") (tramp-sh-file-name-handler 'file-truename "/sudo::/") (tramp-sh-handle-file-truename "/sudo::/") tramp-sh-handle-file-truename is (format "%s%s" A B), where A does most of the work and B just adds an extra final slash conditionally: (if (string-equal (file-name-nondirectory filename) "") "/" ""))) I think this could be fixed by making it: (let ((result A)) (format "%s%s" result (if (and (string-equal (file-name-nondirectory filename) "") (not (string-equal (file-name-nondirectory result) ""))) "/" ""))) I have attached a patch implementing this, made against emacs-26 since this is a straightforward bug fix. In GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.24), modified by Debian Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11906000 System Description: Debian GNU/Linux rodete (upgraded from: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 MODULES THREADS JSON LCMS2 Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Dired by name