diff --git a/dev-tools/scripts/checkJavadocLinks.py b/dev-tools/scripts/checkJavadocLinks.py
index 21c855b5477..35bf05eb516 100644
--- a/dev-tools/scripts/checkJavadocLinks.py
+++ b/dev-tools/scripts/checkJavadocLinks.py
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ def checkAll(dirName):
         # Somehow even w/ java 7 generaged javadocs,
         # deprecated-list.html can fail to escape generics types
         fullPath = os.path.join(root, f).replace(os.path.sep,'/')
+        fullPath = 'file:%s' % urlparse.quote(fullPath)
+        # parse and unparse the URL to "normalize" it
+        fullPath = urlparse.urlunparse(urlparse.urlparse(fullPath))
         #print '  %s' % fullPath
         allFiles[fullPath] = parse(fullPath, open('%s/%s' % (root, f), encoding='UTF-8').read())
 
@@ -209,30 +212,26 @@ def checkAll(dirName):
         # on annotations it seems?
         pass
       elif link.startswith('file:'):
-        filepath = urlparse.unquote(urlparse.urlparse(link).path)
-        if not (os.path.exists(filepath) or os.path.exists(filepath[1:])):
-          if not printed:
-            printed = True
-            print()
-            print(fullPath)
-          print('  BROKEN LINK: %s' % link)
-      elif link not in allFiles:
-        # We only load HTML... so if the link is another resource (eg
-        # SweetSpotSimilarity refs
-        # lucene/build/docs/misc/org/apache/lucene/misc/doc-files/ss.gnuplot) then it's OK:
-        if not os.path.exists(link):
-          if not printed:
-            printed = True
-            print()
-            print(fullPath)
-          print('  BROKEN LINK: %s' % link)
+        if link not in allFiles:
+          filepath = urlparse.unquote(urlparse.urlparse(link).path)
+          if not (os.path.exists(filepath) or os.path.exists(filepath[1:])):
+            if not printed:
+              printed = True
+              print()
+              print(fullPath)
+            print('  BROKEN LINK: %s' % link)
       elif anchor is not None and anchor not in allFiles[link][1]:
         if not printed:
           printed = True
           print()
           print(fullPath)
         print('  BROKEN ANCHOR: %s' % origLink)
-
+      else:
+        if not printed:
+          printed = True
+          print()
+          print(fullPath)
+        print('  BROKEN URL SCHEME: %s' % origLink)
     failures = failures or printed
 
   return failures   
diff --git a/lucene/common-build.xml b/lucene/common-build.xml
index 1d8d357c204..35b650ce524 100644
--- a/lucene/common-build.xml
+++ b/lucene/common-build.xml
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@
   </description>
 
   <dirname file="${ant.file.common}" property="common.dir"/>
-  <property name="dev-tools.dir" value="${common.dir}/../dev-tools"/>
-  <property name="prettify.dir" value="${common.dir}/tools/prettify"/>
-  <property name="maven.build.dir" value="${build.dir}/maven"/>
-  <property name="license.dir" value="${common.dir}/licenses"/>
+  <property name="dev-tools.dir" location="${common.dir}/../dev-tools"/>
+  <property name="prettify.dir" location="${common.dir}/tools/prettify"/>
+  <property name="maven.build.dir" location="${build.dir}/maven"/>
+  <property name="license.dir" location="${common.dir}/licenses"/>
 
   <!-- Give user a chance to override without editing this file
       (and without typing -D each time it compiles it -->
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
   <property name="ivy.sync" value="true"/>
 
   <property name="junit.jar" value="junit-4.10.jar"/>
-  <property name="junit-location.jar" value="${common.dir}/test-framework/lib/${junit.jar}"/>
+  <property name="junit-location.jar" location="${common.dir}/test-framework/lib/${junit.jar}"/>
 
   <path id="junit-path">
     <fileset dir="${common.dir}/test-framework/lib">
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@
   <property name="tests.timezone" value="random" />
   <property name="tests.directory" value="random" />
   <property name="tests.linedocsfile" value="europarl.lines.txt.gz" />
-  <property name="tests.loggingfile" value="${common.dir}/tools/junit4/logging.properties"/>
+  <property name="tests.loggingfile" location="${common.dir}/tools/junit4/logging.properties"/>
   <property name="tests.nightly" value="false" />
   <property name="tests.weekly" value="false" />
   <property name="tests.slow" value="true" />
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@
   </condition>
   <property name="tests.clover.args" value=""/>
 
-  <property name="tests.tempDir" value="${build.dir}/test"/>
+  <property name="tests.tempDir" location="${build.dir}/test"/>
 
   <property name="tests.cachefile" location="${common.dir}/tools/junit4/cached-timehints.txt" />
   <property name="tests.cachefilehistory" value="20" />
@@ -144,11 +144,11 @@
   <property name="bootclasspath" value=""/>
   <property name="javadoc.link" value="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/"/>
   <property name="javadoc.link.junit" value="http://junit.sourceforge.net/javadoc/"/>
-  <property name="javadoc.packagelist.dir" value="${common.dir}/tools/javadoc"/>
+  <property name="javadoc.packagelist.dir" location="${common.dir}/tools/javadoc"/>
   <available file="${javadoc.packagelist.dir}/java6/package-list" property="javadoc.java6.packagelist.exists"/>
   <property name="javadoc.access" value="protected"/>
   <property name="javadoc.charset" value="utf-8"/>
-  <property name="javadoc.dir" value="${common.dir}/build/docs"/>
+  <property name="javadoc.dir" location="${common.dir}/build/docs"/>
   <property name="javadoc.maxmemory" value="512m" />
   <property name="javadoc.noindex" value="true"/>
   <!-- Javadoc classpath -->
@@ -161,8 +161,8 @@
     </fileset>
   </path>
 	
-  <property name="changes.src.dir" value="${common.dir}/site/changes"/>
-  <property name="changes.target.dir" value="${common.dir}/build/docs/changes"/>
+  <property name="changes.src.dir" location="${common.dir}/site/changes"/>
+  <property name="changes.target.dir" location="${common.dir}/build/docs/changes"/>
 
   <property name="project.name" value="site"/> <!-- todo: is this used by anakia or something else? -->
   <property name="build.encoding" value="utf-8"/>
@@ -1805,11 +1805,10 @@ ${tests-output}/junit4-*.suites     - per-JVM executed suites
 
   <macrodef name="check-broken-links">
        <attribute name="dir"/>
-   <!-- TODO: somehow, the behavior of this script has CWD-funkiness but only on windows -->
      <sequential>
-       <exec dir="@{dir}" executable="${python32.exe}" failonerror="true">
+       <exec dir="." executable="${python32.exe}" failonerror="true">
          <arg value="${dev-tools.dir}/scripts/checkJavadocLinks.py"/>
-         <arg value="."/>
+         <arg value="@{dir}"/>
        </exec>
      </sequential>
   </macrodef>
diff --git a/solr/common-build.xml b/solr/common-build.xml
index fa481282425..25e8a040c91 100644
--- a/solr/common-build.xml
+++ b/solr/common-build.xml
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
   <property name="tests.loggingfile" location="${common-solr.dir}/testlogging.properties"/>
   <property name="tests.cleanthreads.sysprop" value="perClass"/>
 
-  <property name="changes.target.dir" value="${dest}/docs/changes"/>
-  <property name="license.dir" value="${common-solr.dir}/licenses"/>
+  <property name="changes.target.dir" location="${dest}/docs/changes"/>
+  <property name="license.dir" location="${common-solr.dir}/licenses"/>
 
   <import file="${common-solr.dir}/../lucene/module-build.xml"/>