Index: trunk/ppBackground/src/ppBackgroundArguments.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/ppBackground/src/ppBackgroundArguments.c	(revision 28434)
+++ trunk/ppBackground/src/ppBackgroundArguments.c	(revision 28543)
@@ -77,9 +77,16 @@
     const char *statsName = psMetadataLookupStr(NULL, arguments, "-stats");
     if (statsName) {
-        data->statsFile = fopen(statsName, "w");
-        if (!data->statsFile) {
-            psError(PPBACKGROUND_ERR_IO, true, "Unable to open statistics file %s", statsName);
+        psString resolved = pmConfigConvertFilename(statsName, data->config, true, true); // Resolved filename
+        if (!resolved) {
+            psError(psErrorCodeLast(), false, "Unable to resolve statistics file %s", statsName);
             return false;
         }
+        data->statsFile = fopen(resolved, "w");
+        if (!data->statsFile) {
+            psError(PPBACKGROUND_ERR_IO, true, "Unable to open statistics file %s = %s", statsName, resolved);
+            psFree(resolved);
+            return false;
+        }
+        psFree(resolved);
         data->stats = psMetadataAlloc();
         pmConfigRunFilenameAddWrite(data->config, "STATS", statsName);