diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 8834fadcc..66e7399a0 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ Other changes:
    availableProcessors, freeMemory, maxMemory and totalMemory methods
    of the Java Runtime class.
 
+ * <resourcelist> has a new basedir attribute that can be used to
+   resolve relative names and provides a root for the FileResources
+   generated.
+   Bugzilla Report 62379
+
 Changes from Ant 1.9.10 TO Ant 1.9.11
 =====================================
 
diff --git a/manual/Types/resources.html b/manual/Types/resources.html
index 8ba77aa12..5bdc2314f 100644
--- a/manual/Types/resources.html
+++ b/manual/Types/resources.html
@@ -1334,6 +1334,15 @@ collection. <strong>Since Ant 1.9.5</strong>.</p>
       <td valign="top">The encoding of the nested resources</td>
       <td valign="top" align="center">No, default is platform default</td>
     </tr>
+    <tr>
+      <td valign="top">basedir</td>
+      <td valign="top">Base directory that is used to resolve
+        relative file names against. Is also used to provide a base
+        directory to the FileResources created by this resource
+        collection. <em>Since Ant 1.9.12</em>
+      </td>
+      <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+    </tr>
   </table>
 </blockquote>
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/resources/ResourceList.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/resources/ResourceList.java
index b24277dda..79cbbb5cb 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/resources/ResourceList.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/resources/ResourceList.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources;
 
 import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ public class ResourceList extends DataType implements ResourceCollection {
     private final Union cachedResources = new Union();
     private volatile boolean cached = false;
     private String encoding = null;
+    private File baseDir;
 
     public ResourceList() {
         cachedResources.setCache(true);
@@ -99,6 +101,21 @@ public class ResourceList extends DataType implements ResourceCollection {
         this.encoding = encoding;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Basedir to use for file resources read from nested resources -
+     * this allows the resources contained inside this collection to
+     * be considered relative to a certain base directory.
+     *
+     * @param basedir the basedir
+     * @since Ant 1.9.12
+     */
+    public final void setBasedir(File baseDir) {
+        if (isReference()) {
+            throw tooManyAttributes();
+        }
+        this.baseDir = baseDir;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Makes this instance in effect a reference to another ResourceList
      * instance.
@@ -250,6 +267,11 @@ public class ResourceList extends DataType implements ResourceCollection {
                 // resource
             }
         }
+        if (baseDir != null) {
+            FileResource fr = new FileResource(baseDir, expandedLine);
+            fr.setProject(getProject());
+            return fr;
+        }
         return new FileResource(getProject(), expandedLine);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/copy-test.xml b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/copy-test.xml
index 5bca72480..1fd4b59f1 100644
--- a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/copy-test.xml
+++ b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/copy-test.xml
@@ -484,4 +484,22 @@ public class NullByteStreamResource extends Resource {
     </copy>
     <au:assertFileExists file="${output}/filea"/>
   </target>
+
+  <target name="testCopyOfResourceListDoesntFlatten"
+          description="https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=62379">
+    <mkdir dir="${input}/dir"/>
+    <touch file="${input}/a"/>
+    <touch file="${input}/b"/>
+    <touch file="${input}/c"/>
+    <echo file="${input}/dir/c">Testfile</echo>
+    <mkdir dir="${output}"/>
+    <copy todir="${output}">
+      <resourcelist basedir="${input}">
+        <string value="${input}/dir/c"/>
+      </resourcelist>
+    </copy>
+    <au:assertFileDoesntExist file="${output}/c"/>
+    <au:assertFileExists file="${output}/dir/c"/>
+    <au:assertFilesMatch expected="${input}/dir/c" actual="${output}/dir/c"/>
+  </target>
 </project>