diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 491c176986b9c..236fbc35121ef 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
     (tomas dot brastavicius at quantum dot lt, Pierrick)
   . Fixed bug #48465 (sys_get_temp_dir() possibly inconsistent when using 
     TMPDIR on Windows). (Pierre)
+  . Fixed bug 54866 (incorrect accounting for realpath_cache_size) (Dustin Ward)
 
-- cURL
+- cURL:
   . Added CURLINFO_REDIRECT_URL support. (Daniel Stenberg, Pierre)
   . Added support for CURLOPT_MAX_RECV_SPEED_LARGE and 
     CURLOPT_MAX_SEND_SPEED_LARGE. FR #51815. (Pierrick)
diff --git a/TSRM/tsrm_virtual_cwd.c b/TSRM/tsrm_virtual_cwd.c
index 6fdf9eb994949..b3d12e2b95929 100644
--- a/TSRM/tsrm_virtual_cwd.c
+++ b/TSRM/tsrm_virtual_cwd.c
@@ -629,7 +629,13 @@ CWD_API void realpath_cache_del(const char *path, int path_len TSRMLS_DC) /* {{{
 					memcmp(path, (*bucket)->path, path_len) == 0) {
 			realpath_cache_bucket *r = *bucket;
 			*bucket = (*bucket)->next;
-			CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1 + r->realpath_len + 1;
+		   
+			/* if the pointers match then only subtract the length of the path */
+		   	if(r->path == r->realpath) 
+                            CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1;
+                        else
+                            CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1 + r->realpath_len + 1;
+		   
 			free(r);
 			return;
 		} else {
@@ -704,7 +710,13 @@ static inline realpath_cache_bucket* realpath_cache_find(const char *path, int p
 		if (CWDG(realpath_cache_ttl) && (*bucket)->expires < t) {
 			realpath_cache_bucket *r = *bucket;
 			*bucket = (*bucket)->next;
-			CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1 + r->realpath_len + 1;
+
+			/* if the pointers match then only subtract the length of the path */		   
+		   	if(r->path == r->realpath) 
+                            CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1;
+                        else
+                            CWDG(realpath_cache_size) -= sizeof(realpath_cache_bucket) + r->path_len + 1 + r->realpath_len + 1;
+		   
 			free(r);
 		} else if (key == (*bucket)->key && path_len == (*bucket)->path_len &&
 					memcmp(path, (*bucket)->path, path_len) == 0) {