diff --git a/collects/scribblings/reference/paths.scrbl b/collects/scribblings/reference/paths.scrbl
index 2024b22762..4fb1f14b84 100644
--- a/collects/scribblings/reference/paths.scrbl
+++ b/collects/scribblings/reference/paths.scrbl
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ the conversion of Windows paths.
 
 See also @racket[some-system-path->string].}
 
-@defproc[(path->bytes [path path?]) bytes?]{
+@defproc[(path->bytes [path path-for-some-system?]) bytes?]{
 
 Produces @racket[path]'s byte string representation. No information is
 lost in this translation, so that @racket[(bytes->path (path->bytes
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ As for @racket[path->string], information can be lost from
 
 @defproc[(bytes->path-element [bstr bytes?]
                               [type (or/c 'unix 'windows) (system-path-convention-type)]) 
-         path?]{
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Like @racket[bytes->path], except that @racket[bstr] corresponds to a
 single relative element in a path. In terms of conversions and
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ reassembling the result with @racket[bytes->path-element] and
 @racket[build-path]).}
 
 
-@defproc[(path-convention-type [path path?])
+@defproc[(path-convention-type [path path-for-some-system?])
          (or/c 'unix 'windows)]{
 
 Accepts a path value (not a string) and returns its convention
@@ -201,11 +201,11 @@ Returns the path convention type of the current platform:
 Windows.}
 
 
-@defproc[(build-path [base (or/c path-string? 'up 'same)]
-                     [sub (or/c (and/c path-string? 
+@defproc[(build-path [base (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system? 'up 'same)]
+                     [sub (or/c (and/c (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)
                                        (not/c complete-path?))
                                 (or/c 'up 'same))] ...)
-         path?]{
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Creates a path given a base path and any number of sub-path
 extensions. If @racket[base] is an absolute path, the result is an
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ drive specification (with or without a trailing slash) the first
 @racket[sub] can be an absolute (driveless) path. For all platforms,
 the last @racket[sub] can be a filename.
 
-The @racket[base] and @racket[sub-paths] arguments can be paths for
+The @racket[base] and @racket[sub] arguments can be paths for
 any platform. The platform for the resulting path is inferred from the
 @racket[base] and @racket[sub] arguments, where string arguments imply
 a path for the current platform. If different arguments are for
@@ -261,15 +261,18 @@ Windows examples.
 ]}
 
 
-@defproc[(build-path/convention-type [type (or/c 'unix 'windows)]
-                                     [base path-string?]
-                                     [sub (or/c path-string? 'up 'same)] ...)
-         path?]{
+@defproc[(build-path/convention-type
+                     [type (or/c 'unix 'windows)]
+                     [base (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system? 'up 'same)]
+                     [sub (or/c (and/c (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)
+                                       (not/c complete-path?))
+                                (or/c 'up 'same))] ...)
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Like @racket[build-path], except a path convention type is specified
 explicitly.}
 
-@defproc[(absolute-path? [path path-string?]) boolean?]{
+@defproc[(absolute-path? [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]) boolean?]{
 
 Returns @racket[#t] if @racket[path] is an absolute path, @racket[#f]
 otherwise. The @racket[path] argument can be a path for any
@@ -278,7 +281,7 @@ contains a nul character), @racket[#f] is returned. This procedure
 does not access the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(relative-path? [path path-string?]) boolean?]{
+@defproc[(relative-path? [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]) boolean?]{
 
 Returns @racket[#t] if @racket[path] is a relative path, @racket[#f]
 otherwise. The @racket[path] argument can be a path for any
@@ -287,7 +290,7 @@ contains a nul character), @racket[#f] is returned. This procedure
 does not access the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(complete-path? [path path-string?]) boolean?]{
+@defproc[(complete-path? [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]) boolean?]{
 
 Returns @racket[#t] if @racket[path] is a completely determined path
 (@italic{not} relative to a directory or drive), @racket[#f]
@@ -300,9 +303,9 @@ contains a nul character), @racket[#f] is returned.
 This procedure does not access the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(path->complete-path [path path-string?]
-                              [base path-string? (current-directory)])
-         path?]{
+@defproc[(path->complete-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]
+                              [base (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?) (current-directory)])
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Returns @racket[path] as a complete path. If @racket[path] is already
 a complete path, it is returned as the result. Otherwise,
@@ -317,7 +320,8 @@ platforms, the @exnraise[exn:fail:contract].
 This procedure does not access the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(path->directory-path [path path-string?]) path?]{
+@defproc[(path->directory-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)])
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Returns @racket[path] if @racket[path] syntactically refers to a
 directory and ends in a separator, otherwise it returns an extended
@@ -341,13 +345,14 @@ owning @racket[path]), otherwise @racket[path] is returned (after
 expansion).}
 
 
-@defproc[(cleanse-path [path path-string?]) path]{
+@defproc[(cleanse-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)])
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 @techlink{Cleanse}s @racket[path] (as described at the beginning of
 this chapter) without consulting the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(expand-user-path [path path-string?]) path]{
+@defproc[(expand-user-path [path path-string?]) path?]{
 
 @techlink{Cleanse}s @racket[path]. In addition, under @|AllUnix|, a
 leading @litchar{~} is treated as user's home directory and expanded;
@@ -356,7 +361,9 @@ of the path), where @litchar{~} by itself indicates the home directory
 of the current user.}
 
 
-@defproc[(simplify-path [path path-string?] [use-filesystem? boolean? #t]) path?]{
+@defproc[(simplify-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]
+                        [use-filesystem? boolean? #t])
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Eliminates redundant path separators (except for a single trailing
 separator), up-directory @litchar{..}, and same-directory @litchar{.}
@@ -364,7 +371,7 @@ indicators in @racket[path], and changes @litchar{/} separators to
 @litchar{\} separators in Windows paths, such that the result
 accesses the same file or directory (if it exists) as @racket[path].
 
-In general, the pathname is normalized as much as possible --- without
+In general, the pathname is normalized as much as possible---without
 consulting the filesystem if @racket[use-filesystem?] is @racket[#f],
 and (under Windows) without changing the case of letters within the
 path.  If @racket[path] syntactically refers to a directory, the
@@ -401,7 +408,8 @@ See @secref["unixpaths"] for more information on simplifying
 information on simplifying Windows paths.}
  
 
-@defproc[(normal-case-path [path path-string?]) path?]{
+@defproc[(normal-case-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)])
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Returns @racket[path] with ``normalized'' case letters. For @|AllUnix|
 paths, this procedure always returns the input path, because
@@ -419,9 +427,9 @@ different on the current platform than for the path's platform.
 This procedure does not access the filesystem.}
 
 
-@defproc[(split-path [path path-string?])
-         (values (or/c path? 'relative #f)
-                 (or/c path? 'up 'same)
+@defproc[(split-path [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)])
+         (values (or/c path-for-some-system? 'relative #f)
+                 (or/c path-for-some-system? 'up 'same)
                  boolean?)]{
 
 Deconstructs @racket[path] into a smaller path and an immediate
@@ -469,9 +477,9 @@ See @secref["unixpaths"] for more information on splitting
 information on splitting Windows paths.}
 
 
-@defproc[(path-replace-suffix [path path-string?]
+@defproc[(path-replace-suffix [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]
                               [suffix (or/c string? bytes?)])
-         path?]{
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Returns a path that is the same as @racket[path], except that the
 suffix for the last element of the path is changed to
@@ -483,9 +491,9 @@ at the end of the path element, as long as the path element is not
 path for any platform, and the result is for the same platform. If
 @racket[path] represents a root, the @exnraise[exn:fail:contract].}
 
-@defproc[(path-add-suffix [path path-string?]
+@defproc[(path-add-suffix [path (or/c path-string? path-for-some-system?)]
                           [suffix (or/c string? bytes?)])
-         path?]{
+         path-for-some-system?]{
 
 Similar to @racket[path-replace-suffix], but any existing suffix on
 @racket[path] is preserved by replacing every @litchar{.} in the last
diff --git a/collects/tests/racket/path.rktl b/collects/tests/racket/path.rktl
index 80803d25b3..a6a3618953 100644
--- a/collects/tests/racket/path.rktl
+++ b/collects/tests/racket/path.rktl
@@ -674,9 +674,8 @@
   (test (string->path "\\\\?\\RED\\..\\..") normal-case-path (coerce "\\\\?\\RED\\..\\.."))
 
   ;; cleanse-path removes redundant backslashes
-  (when (eq? 'windows (system-type))
-    (test (string->path "\\\\?\\\\UNC\\x\\y") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\\\UNC\\x\\y"))
-    (test (string->path "\\\\?\\c:\\") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\c:\\\\")))
+  (test (string->path "\\\\?\\\\UNC\\x\\y") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\\\UNC\\x\\y"))
+  (test (string->path "\\\\?\\c:\\") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\c:\\\\"))
 
   ;; cleanse-path removes redundant backslashes, and
   ;; simplify-path uses cleanse-path under Windows:
@@ -690,9 +689,9 @@
            (test (string->path "\\\\?\\UNC\\a\\b\\.") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\UNC\\\\a\\b\\\\."))
            (test (string->path "\\\\?\\RED\\\\..") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\RED\\.."))
            (test (string->path "\\\\?\\") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\\\")))])
+    (go cleanse-path)
+    (test (string->path "\\\\?\\c:") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\c:"))
     (when (eq? 'windows (system-type))
-      (go cleanse-path)
-      (test (string->path "\\\\?\\c:") cleanse-path (coerce "\\\\?\\c:"))
       (go simplify-path))
     (go (lambda (p) (simplify-path p #f)))
     (test (string->path "a\\b") simplify-path (coerce "a/b") #f)
diff --git a/src/racket/src/file.c b/src/racket/src/file.c
index 7bec2a79fb..d62f2d827d 100644
--- a/src/racket/src/file.c
+++ b/src/racket/src/file.c
@@ -4018,8 +4018,8 @@ static Scheme_Object *resolve_path(int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
   char *filename;
   int expanded;
 
-  if (!SCHEME_GENERAL_PATH_STRINGP(argv[0]))
-    scheme_wrong_type("resolve-path", SCHEME_GENERAL_PATH_STRING_STR, 0, argc, argv);
+  if (!SCHEME_PATH_STRINGP(argv[0]))
+    scheme_wrong_type("resolve-path", SCHEME_PATH_STRING_STR, 0, argc, argv);
 
   filename = do_expand_filename(argv[0],
 				NULL,
@@ -4669,10 +4669,15 @@ static Scheme_Object *current_drive(int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
 static Scheme_Object *cleanse_path(int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
 {
   char *filename;
-  int expanded;
+  int expanded, kind;
 
-  if (!SCHEME_PATH_STRINGP(argv[0]))
-    scheme_wrong_type("cleanse-path", SCHEME_PATH_STRING_STR, 0, argc, argv);
+  if (!SCHEME_GENERAL_PATH_STRINGP(argv[0]))
+    scheme_wrong_type("cleanse-path", SCHEME_GENERAL_PATH_STRING_STR, 0, argc, argv);
+
+  if (SCHEME_GENERAL_PATHP(argv[0]))
+    kind = SCHEME_PATH_KIND(argv[0]);
+  else
+    kind = SCHEME_PLATFORM_PATH_KIND;
 
   filename = do_expand_filename(argv[0],
 				NULL,
@@ -4681,13 +4686,13 @@ static Scheme_Object *cleanse_path(int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
 				&expanded,
 				1, 0,
 				0, /* no security check, since the filesystem is not used */ 
-                                SCHEME_PLATFORM_PATH_KIND,
+                                kind,
                                 0);
   
-  if (!expanded && SCHEME_PATHP(argv[0]))
+  if (!expanded && SCHEME_GENERAL_PATHP(argv[0]))
     return argv[0];
   else
-    return scheme_make_sized_path(filename, strlen(filename), 1);
+    return scheme_make_sized_offset_kind_path(filename, 0, strlen(filename), 1, kind);
 }
 
 static Scheme_Object *expand_user_path(int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])