diff --git a/Utility/Url.hs b/Utility/Url.hs
index ddf5eea408..07be955e25 100644
--- a/Utility/Url.hs
+++ b/Utility/Url.hs
@@ -209,9 +209,6 @@ download' quiet url file uo =
 	case parseURIRelaxed url of
 		Just u
 			| uriScheme u == "file:" -> do
-				-- curl does not create destination file
-				-- for an empty file:// url, so pre-create
-				writeFile file ""
 				curl
 			| otherwise -> ifM (inPath "wget") (wget , curl)
 		_ -> return False
@@ -240,8 +237,12 @@ download' quiet url file uo =
 	 - the remainder to download as the whole file,
 	 - and not indicating how much percent was
 	 - downloaded before the resume. -}
-	curl = go "curl" $ headerparams ++ quietopt "-s" ++
-		[Params "-f -L -C - -# -o"]
+	curl = do
+		-- curl does not create destination file
+		-- if the url happens to be empty, so pre-create.
+		writeFile file ""
+		go "curl" $ headerparams ++ quietopt "-s" ++
+			[Params "-f -L -C - -# -o"]
 	go cmd opts = boolSystem cmd $
 		addUserAgent uo $ reqParams uo++opts++[File file, File url]
 	quietopt s
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c41a3c0b51..bb487279b9 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ git-annex (5.20150318) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * assistant: Committing a whole lot of files at once could overflow
     command-line length limits and cause the commit to fail. This
     only happened when using the assistant in an indirect mode repository.
+  * Work around curl bug when asked to download an empty url to a file.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:05:32 -0400