diff --git a/src/support/ChangeLog b/src/support/ChangeLog
index f81d1cc6ff..70ec20926e 100644
--- a/src/support/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/support/ChangeLog
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
+2002-02-08  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <lasgouttes@freesurf.fr>
+
+	* filetools.C (do_popen): fix for cygwin compatibility (from Claus
+	Hentschel). This code should maybe be moved to os:: class.
+
 2002-02-08  Herbert Voss  <voss@perce.de>
 
-	* filetools.[C]: (unzipFile) fix typo
+	* filetools.C: (unzipFile) fix typo
 
 2002-02-06  Herbert Voss  <voss@perce.de>
 
-	* filetools.[Ch]: fix sume bugs for detecting zipped files 
+	* filetools.[Ch]: fix some bugs for detecting zipped files 
 	adding unzipFile()
 
 2002-02-04  Herbert Voss  <voss@perce.de>
diff --git a/src/support/filetools.C b/src/support/filetools.C
index 515e2ea8e1..37aab49fc7 100644
--- a/src/support/filetools.C
+++ b/src/support/filetools.C
@@ -1134,7 +1134,18 @@ cmdret const do_popen(string const & cmd)
 	// of course the best would be to have a
 	// pstream (process stream), with the
 	// variants ipstream, opstream
-	FILE * inf = ::popen(cmd.c_str(), "r");
+
+	// CYGWIN needs 'b', but linux only works without it
+#ifdef __CYGWIN__
+	FILE * inf = ::popen(cmd.c_str(), "rb");
+#else
+        FILE * inf = ::popen(cmd.c_str(), "r");
+#endif
+
+	// (Claus Hentschel) Check if popen was succesful ;-)
+	if (!inf)
+		return make_pair(-1, string());
+	
 	string ret;
 	int c = fgetc(inf);
 	while (c != EOF) {