diff --git a/Command/Add.hs b/Command/Add.hs
index 25548a9731..7b2d5fd305 100644
--- a/Command/Add.hs
+++ b/Command/Add.hs
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@ lockDown file = do
 	tmp <- fromRepo gitAnnexTmpDir
 	createAnnexDirectory tmp
 	liftIO $ do
-		(tmpfile, _handle) <- openTempFile tmp (takeFileName file)
+		(tmpfile, handle) <- openTempFile tmp (takeFileName file)
+		hClose handle
 		nukeFile tmpfile
 		createLink file tmpfile
 		return $ KeySource { keyFilename = file , contentLocation = tmpfile }
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 8979d29df5..f98d335b73 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 git-annex (3.20130103) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * webapp: Add UI to stop and restart assistant.
+  * committer: Fix a file handle leak.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:58:45 -0400
 
diff --git a/doc/bugs/assistant___40__OS_X_Lion__41___-___34__too_many_open_files__34___error.mdwn b/doc/bugs/assistant___40__OS_X_Lion__41___-___34__too_many_open_files__34___error.mdwn
index ad8d18fcf6..1b3879e639 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/assistant___40__OS_X_Lion__41___-___34__too_many_open_files__34___error.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/assistant___40__OS_X_Lion__41___-___34__too_many_open_files__34___error.mdwn
@@ -24,3 +24,9 @@ What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?
 Please provide any additional information below.
 
 I imagine I could avoid this error by using the "ulimit -n" command to increase number of files in a shell session and then running assistant manually, so this is really only a bug report about the bundled application.
+
+> This seems to be caused by Command.Add.lockdown not closing the
+> temporary file handle, so when called in a mapM by the committer
+> thread when there are a lot of files, it could build up a lot of
+> open handles before later GC closes them. Added a manual close,
+> so I think this is [[done]]. --[[Joey]]