diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
index b0cb4b934..ebc3951a6 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2002-10-31  Pierre Humblet <pierre.humblet@ieee.org>
+
+	* fhandler.cc (fhandler_base::open): Verify pc isn't NULL.
+
 2002-10-30  Christopher Faylor  <cgf@redhat.com>
 
 	* include/cygwin/version.h: Bump DLL minor number.
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
index fccbb361e..ffb67b6cc 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
@@ -442,7 +442,7 @@ fhandler_base::open (path_conv *pc, int flags, mode_t mode)
 
   if (x == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
     {
-      if (pc->isdir () && !wincap.can_open_directories ())
+      if (!wincap.can_open_directories () && pc && pc->isdir ())
 	{
 	  if (mode & (O_CREAT | O_EXCL) == (O_CREAT | O_EXCL))
 	    set_errno (EEXIST);