Both Emacs and Org are on recent master commits. Repro:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- $ cd $(mktemp -d) $ mkdir 1 $ touch 2 $ emacs -L /org/lisp/ -Q 1/3.org M-: emacs-repository-version RET "db7e95531ac36ae842787b6c5f2859d0642c78cc" M-x org-version RET Org mode version 9.7-pre (release_9.6.1-321-g44e1cb @ /opt/src/emacs/packages/orgmode/main/lisp/) C-c C-l file:../4 RET RET [[file:/tmp/tmp.ztrbRDDtKy/4]] C-c C-l file:../2 RET RET [[file:/tmp/tmp.ztrbRDDtKy/2]] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Note that I showcased both ../4 and ../2 because it seems that the referenced file does not need to exist. I expect the links to be literally [[file:../4]] and [[file:../2]] respectively. This is helpful for me to reference other files relatively (e.g., in a repository). For example, since I am working on translating orgweb to zh_CN, I have /zh_CN/index.org referencing /resources/img/xyz.svg, where after I do `C-c C-l file:../resources/img/xyz.svg RET' inside /zh_CN/index.org, Org resolves this link to an absolute path which is counterproductive and does not work beyond my own computer. -- Best, RY