diff --git a/src/tophat2.sh b/src/tophat2.sh
index 4ab88ee6..a88a8d90 100644
--- a/src/tophat2.sh
+++ b/src/tophat2.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-pbin=""
-fl=$(readlink $0)
-if [[ -z "$fl" ]]; then
-   pbin=$(dirname $0)
- else
-   pbin=$(dirname $fl)
-fi
-export PATH=$pbin:$PATH
-$pbin/tophat "$@"
+# http://stackoverflow.com/a/246128:
+SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
+while [ -h "$SOURCE" ]; do # resolve $SOURCE until the file is no longer a symlink
+  DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"
+  SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"
+  [[ $SOURCE != /* ]] && SOURCE="$DIR/$SOURCE" # if $SOURCE was a relative symlink, we need to resolve it relative to the path where the symlink file was located
+done
+DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"
+export PATH=$DIR:$PATH
+$DIR/tophat "$@"