diff --git a/Remote/Bup.hs b/Remote/Bup.hs
index 9b54d8c855..583358f242 100644
--- a/Remote/Bup.hs
+++ b/Remote/Bup.hs
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy.Char8 as L
 import System.IO.Error
 import qualified Data.Map as M
 import System.Process
+import System.Posix.Env (getEnvironment)
+import System.Path (brackettmpdir)
 
 import Common.Annex
 import Types.Remote
@@ -83,10 +85,21 @@ bupParams :: String -> BupRepo -> [CommandParam] -> [CommandParam]
 bupParams command buprepo params = 
 	Param command : [Param "-r", Param buprepo] ++ params
 
+isLocal :: BupRepo -> Bool
+isLocal buprepo = not (elem ':' buprepo)
+
 bup :: String -> BupRepo -> [CommandParam] -> Annex Bool
 bup command buprepo params = do
 	showOutput -- make way for bup output
-	liftIO $ boolSystem "bup" $ bupParams command buprepo params
+	liftIO action
+	where
+		action | isLocal buprepo = runBup lparams buprepo
+		       | otherwise = brackettmpdir "bupXXXXXX" $ runBup rparams
+		lparams = Param command : params
+		rparams = bupParams command buprepo params
+		runBup params bupdir = do
+			env <- getEnvironment
+			boolSystemEnv "bup" params (Just (("BUP_DIR", bupdir) : env))
 
 pipeBup :: [CommandParam] -> Maybe Handle -> Maybe Handle -> IO Bool
 pipeBup params inh outh = do
diff --git a/doc/bugs/copy_doesn__39__t_scale.mdwn b/doc/bugs/copy_doesn__39__t_scale.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1a83ae548b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/copy_doesn__39__t_scale.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+It seems that git-annex copies every individual file in a separate transaction. This is quite costly for mass transfers: each file involves a separate rsync invocation and the creation of a new commit. Even with a meager thousand files or so in the annex, I have to wait for fifteen minutes to copy the contents to another disk, simply because every individual file involves some disk thrashing. Also, it seems suspicious that the git-annex branch would get a thousands commits of history from the simple procedure of copying everything to a new repository. Surely it would be better to first copy everything and then create only a single commit that registers the changes to the files' availability?
+
+(I'm also not quite clear on why rsync is being used when both repositories are local. It seems to be just overhead.)
+
diff --git a/doc/bugs/problems_with_utf8_names/comment_5_519cda534c7aea7f5ad5acd3f76e21fa._comment b/doc/bugs/problems_with_utf8_names/comment_5_519cda534c7aea7f5ad5acd3f76e21fa._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..96b0ffed04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/problems_with_utf8_names/comment_5_519cda534c7aea7f5ad5acd3f76e21fa._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawk6QAwUsFHpr3Km1yQbg8hf3S7RDYf7hX4"
+ nickname="Lauri"
+ subject="comment 5"
+ date="2012-01-26T22:13:18Z"
+ content="""
+I also encountered Adam's bug. The problem seems to be that communication with the git process is done with `Char8`-bytestrings. So, when `L.unpack` is called, all filenames that git outputs (with `ls-files` or `ls-tree`) are interpreted to be in latin-1, which wreaks havoc if they are really in UTF-8.
+
+I suspect that it would be enough to just switch to standard `String`s (or `Data.Text.Text`) instead of bytestrings for textual data, and to `Word8`-bytestrings for pure binary data. GHC should nowadays handle locale-dependent encoding of `String`s transparently.
+
+"""]]