diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
index b5e3744de6f0e..6ddc9b375b1af 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\DelegatingLoader;
 use Symfony\Component\Config\ConfigCache;
 use Symfony\Component\ClassLoader\ClassCollectionLoader;
+use Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem;
 
 /**
  * The Kernel is the heart of the Symfony system.
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ abstract class Kernel implements KernelInterface, TerminableInterface
     protected $bundleMap;
     protected $container;
     protected $rootDir;
+    protected $realRootDir;
     protected $environment;
     protected $debug;
     protected $booted = false;
@@ -714,9 +716,67 @@ protected function dumpContainer(ConfigCache $cache, ContainerBuilder $container
             $content = static::stripComments($content);
         }
 
+        $content = $this->removeAbsolutePathsFromContainer($content);
+
         $cache->write($content, $container->getResources());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Converts absolute paths to relative ones in the dumped container.
+     */
+    private function removeAbsolutePathsFromContainer($content)
+    {
+        if (!class_exists('Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem')) {
+            return $content;
+        }
+
+        $rootDir = $this->getRealRootDir();
+        if (!$rootDir) {
+            return $content;
+        }
+
+        $rootDir = rtrim($rootDir, '/');
+        $cacheDir = $this->getCacheDir();
+        $filesystem = new Filesystem();
+
+        return preg_replace_callback("{'([^']*?)(".preg_quote($rootDir)."[^']*)'}", function ($match) use ($filesystem, $cacheDir) {
+            $prefix = !empty($match[1]) ? "'$match[1]'.__DIR__" : "__DIR__";
+
+            if ('.' === $relativePath = rtrim($filesystem->makePathRelative($match[2], $cacheDir), '/')) {
+                return $prefix;
+            }
+
+            return $prefix.".'/".$relativePath."'";
+        }, $content);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Find the "real" root dir (by finding the composer.json file)
+     *
+     * @return null|string
+     */
+    private function getRealRootDir()
+    {
+        if (null !== $this->realRootDir) {
+            return $this->realRootDir;
+        }
+
+        $rootDir = $this->getRootDir();
+        $previous = $rootDir;
+        while (!file_exists($rootDir.'/composer.json')) {
+            if ($previous === $rootDir = realpath($rootDir.'/..')) {
+                // unable to detect the project root, give up
+                return $this->realRootDir = false;
+            }
+
+            $previous = $rootDir;
+        }
+
+        $this->realRootDir = $rootDir;
+
+        return $this->realRootDir;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Returns a loader for the container.
      *
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withAbsolutePaths.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withAbsolutePaths.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..b8644ecb9fe00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withAbsolutePaths.php
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+'ROOT_DIR/app/cache/dev/foo'
+'ROOT_DIR/app/cache/foo'
+'ROOT_DIR/foo/bar.php'
+'ROOT_DIR/app/cache/dev'
+
+'/some/where/else/foo'
+
+'file:ROOT_DIR/app/cache/dev/profiler'
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withoutAbsolutePaths.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withoutAbsolutePaths.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..36823dfc160c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withoutAbsolutePaths.php
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+__DIR__.'/foo'
+__DIR__.'/../foo'
+__DIR__.'/../../../foo/bar.php'
+__DIR__
+
+'/some/where/else/foo'
+
+'file:'.__DIR__.'/profiler'
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/composer.json b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/composer.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..0967ef424bce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/composer.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{}
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/KernelForTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/KernelForTest.php
index 5fd61bbc7e7ce..000f823c6ada3 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/KernelForTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/Fixtures/KernelForTest.php
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@
 
 class KernelForTest extends Kernel
 {
+    public function setRootDir($dir)
+    {
+        $this->rootDir = $dir;
+    }
+
     public function getBundleMap()
     {
         return $this->bundleMap;
@@ -34,4 +39,9 @@ public function isBooted()
     {
         return $this->booted;
     }
+
+    public function setRealRootDir($dir)
+    {
+        $this->realRootDir = $dir;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/KernelTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/KernelTest.php
index bc9876df3b12c..8571dddd87a97 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/KernelTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Tests/KernelTest.php
@@ -722,6 +722,39 @@ public function testTerminateDelegatesTerminationOnlyForTerminableInterface()
         $kernel->terminate(Request::create('/'), new Response());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getRemoveAbsolutePathsFromContainerData
+     */
+    public function testRemoveAbsolutePathsFromContainer($symfonyRootDir, $realRootDir, $replacement, $replaced)
+    {
+        $kernel = new KernelForTest('dev', true);
+        $kernel->setRootDir($symfonyRootDir);
+        if (null !== $realRootDir) {
+            $kernel->setRealRootDir($realRootDir);
+        }
+
+        $content = file_get_contents(__DIR__.'/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withAbsolutePaths.php');
+        $content = str_replace('ROOT_DIR', $replacement, $content);
+
+        $m = new \ReflectionMethod($kernel, 'removeAbsolutePathsFromContainer');
+        $m->setAccessible(true);
+        $newContent = $m->invoke($kernel, $content);
+        if ($replaced) {
+            $this->assertEquals(file_get_contents(__DIR__.'/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app/cache/dev/withoutAbsolutePaths.php'), $newContent);
+        } else {
+            $this->assertEquals($newContent, $content);
+        }
+    }
+
+    public function getRemoveAbsolutePathsFromContainerData()
+    {
+        return array(
+            array(__DIR__.'/Fixtures/DumpedContainers/app', null, __DIR__.'/Fixtures/DumpedContainers', true),
+            array(sys_get_temp_dir(), null, __DIR__.'/Fixtures/DumpedContainers', false),
+            array('/app/app', '/app', '/app', true),
+        );
+    }
+
     /**
      * Returns a mock for the BundleInterface
      *
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/composer.json b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/composer.json
index 24bed4a2d1df2..7105b5cb12817 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/composer.json
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/composer.json
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
         "symfony/console": "~2.2",
         "symfony/dependency-injection": "~2.0",
         "symfony/finder": "~2.0",
+        "symfony/filesystem": "~2.4",
         "symfony/process": "~2.0",
         "symfony/routing": "~2.2",
         "symfony/stopwatch": "~2.2",
@@ -40,7 +41,8 @@
         "symfony/config": "",
         "symfony/console": "",
         "symfony/dependency-injection": "",
-        "symfony/finder": ""
+        "symfony/finder": "",
+        "symfony/filesystem": ""
     },
     "autoload": {
         "psr-0": { "Symfony\\Component\\HttpKernel\\": "" }