diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index d162878a88..b1cad112bf 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 
 
 
+Daniel (2 December 2005)
+- Jamie Newton pointed out that libcurl's file:// code would close() a zero
+  file descriptor if given a non-existing file.
+
 Daniel (24 November 2005)
 - Doug Kaufman provided a set of patches to make curl build fine on DJGPP
   again using configure.
diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 148fac0b23..f84c2c3770 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ This release includes the following changes:
 
 This release includes the following bugfixes:
 
+ o using file:// on non-existing files are properly handled
  o builds fine on DJGPP
  o CURLOPT_ERRORBUFFER is now always filled in on errors
  o curl outputs error on bad --limit-rate units
@@ -51,8 +52,8 @@ This release would not have looked like this without help, code, reports and
 advice from friends like these:
 
  Dave Dribin, Bradford Bruce, Temprimus, Ofer, Dima Barsky, Amol Pattekar, Jaz
- Fresh, tommink[at]post.pl, Gisle Vanem, Nis Jorgensen, Vilmos Nebehaj,
- Dmitry Bartsevich, David Lang, Eugene Kotlyarov, Jan Kunder, Yang Tse,
- Quagmire, Albert Chin, David Shaw, Doug Kaufman, Bryan Henderson
+ Fresh, tommink[at]post.pl, Gisle Vanem, Nis Jorgensen, Vilmos Nebehaj, Dmitry
+ Bartsevich, David Lang, Eugene Kotlyarov, Jan Kunder, Yang Tse, Quagmire,
+ Albert Chin, David Shaw, Doug Kaufman, Bryan Henderson, Jamie Newton
 
         Thanks! (and sorry if I forgot to mention someone)
diff --git a/lib/file.c b/lib/file.c
index c325a46737..dbfe81cfa5 100644
--- a/lib/file.c
+++ b/lib/file.c
@@ -158,12 +158,12 @@ CURLcode Curl_file_connect(struct connectdata *conn)
 #endif
   file->freepath = real_path; /* free this when done */
 
+  file->fd = fd;
   if(!conn->data->set.upload && (fd == -1)) {
     failf(conn->data, "Couldn't open file %s", conn->path);
     Curl_file_done(conn, CURLE_FILE_COULDNT_READ_FILE);
     return CURLE_FILE_COULDNT_READ_FILE;
   }
-  file->fd = fd;
 
   return CURLE_OK;
 }