diff --git a/tools/depmod.c b/tools/depmod.c
index a4a7479..18aab5d 100644
--- a/tools/depmod.c
+++ b/tools/depmod.c
@@ -2484,7 +2484,7 @@
 	}
 
 	if (root)
-		root = path_make_absolute_cwd(optarg);
+		root = path_make_absolute_cwd(root);
 
 	cfg.dirnamelen = snprintf(cfg.dirname, PATH_MAX,
 				  "%s/lib/modules/%s",