diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a8298b5ce..03cc68436 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+	* added feature to make asserts log to a file instead of breaking the process
+	  (production asserts)
 	* optimized disk I/O cache clearing
 	* added feature to ask a torrent if it needs to save its resume data or not
 	* added setting to ignore file modification time when loading resume files
diff --git a/include/libtorrent/assert.hpp b/include/libtorrent/assert.hpp
index 7b4b43bb9..eec83281e 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/assert.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/assert.hpp
@@ -34,17 +34,21 @@ POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 
 #include "libtorrent/config.hpp"
 
-#if !defined TORRENT_DEBUG || TORRENT_NO_ASSERTS
+#if (!defined TORRENT_DEBUG && !TORRENT_PRODUCTION_ASSERTS) || TORRENT_NO_ASSERTS
 #define TORRENT_ASSERT(a) do {} while(false)
 #else
 
+#if TORRENT_PRODUCTION_ASSERTS
+extern char const* libtorrent_assert_log;
+#endif
+
 #include <string>
 
 #ifdef __GNUC__
 std::string demangle(char const* name);
 #endif
 
-#if (defined __linux__ || defined __MACH__) && defined __GNUC__ && defined TORRENT_DEBUG
+#if (defined __linux__ || defined __MACH__) && defined __GNUC__
 
 TORRENT_EXPORT void assert_fail(const char* expr, int line, char const* file, char const* function);
 #define TORRENT_ASSERT(x) do { if (x) {} else assert_fail(#x, __LINE__, __FILE__, __PRETTY_FUNCTION__); } while (false)
diff --git a/src/assert.cpp b/src/assert.cpp
index 9088ebfad..82d4f5754 100644
--- a/src/assert.cpp
+++ b/src/assert.cpp
@@ -117,11 +117,15 @@ void print_backtrace(FILE* out, char const* label) {}
 
 #endif
 
+#if TORRENT_PRODUCTION_ASSERTS
+char const* libtorrent_assert_log = "asserts.log";
+#endif
+
 void assert_fail(char const* expr, int line, char const* file, char const* function)
 {
 
 #if TORRENT_PRODUCTION_ASSERTS
-	FILE* out = fopen("asserts.log", "a+");
+	FILE* out = fopen(libtorrent_assert_log, "a+");
 	if (out == 0) out = stderr;
 #else
 	FILE* out = stderr;