diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 6b4316a72d8d5c57922e45b8d96e10ff9df1099b..a8d1488e7138fa740a89a301553cabf02ce170a0 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 This file describes changes in recent versions of SLURM. It primarily
 documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
 
-* Changes in SLURM 1.2.0
-========================
+* Changes in SLURM 1.2.0-pre14
+==============================
  -- In sched/wiki2, clear required nodes list when a job is requeued.
     Note that the required node list is set to every node used when 
     a job is started via sched/wiki2.
  -- BLUEGENE - Added display of deallocating blocks to smap and other tools. 
+ -- Make slurmctld's working directory be same as SlurmctldLogFile (if any),
+    otherwise StateSaveDir (which is likely a shared directory, possibly 
+    making core file identification more difficult).
 
 * Changes in SLURM 1.2.0-pre13
 ==============================
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/controller.c b/src/slurmctld/controller.c
index 885b0a58eb39c72e5a5addfeac349230cdc4d024..4871eb09857f4290ab4a9c91b670494f61e60535 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/controller.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/controller.c
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 #endif   /* !NDEBUG         */
 
 	/* 
-	 * Create StateSaveLocation directory if necessary, and chdir() to it.
+	 * Create StateSaveLocation directory if necessary.
 	 */
 	if (set_slurmctld_state_loc() < 0)
 		fatal("Unable to initialize StateSaveLocation");
@@ -223,6 +223,24 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 			  slurmctld_conf.slurmctld_logfile);
 		if (error_code)
 			error("daemon error %d", error_code);
+		if (slurmctld_conf.slurmctld_logfile
+		&&  (slurmctld_conf.slurmctld_logfile[0] == '/')) {
+			char *slash_ptr, *work_dir;
+			work_dir = xstrdup(slurmctld_conf.slurmctld_logfile);
+			slash_ptr = strrchr(work_dir, '/');
+			if (slash_ptr == work_dir)
+				work_dir[1] = '\0';
+			else
+				slash_ptr[0] = '\0';
+			if (chdir(work_dir) < 0)
+				fatal("chdir(%s): %m", work_dir);
+			xfree(work_dir);
+		} else {
+			if (chdir(slurmctld_conf.state_save_location) < 0) {
+				fatal("chdir(%s): %m",
+					slurmctld_conf.state_save_location);
+			}
+		}
 	}
 	info("slurmctld version %s started", SLURM_VERSION);
 
@@ -1198,14 +1216,5 @@ set_slurmctld_state_loc(void)
 	(void) unlink(tmp);
 	xfree(tmp);
 
-	/*
-	 * Only chdir() to spool directory if slurmctld will be 
-	 * running as a daemon
-	 */
-	if (daemonize && chdir(slurmctld_conf.state_save_location) < 0) {
-		error("chdir(%s): %m", slurmctld_conf.state_save_location);
-		return SLURM_ERROR;
-	}
-
 	return SLURM_SUCCESS;
 }