diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 29d561778091647b7ce605bf266fc522e3adce5e..03b19c0667234bc2bcdba7c4e5b207af608aa195 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2010-04-09 Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
+	* text.c (do_alt_speller): Skip invoking the alt speller if the file size 
+	  is 0 bytes.  Fixes Savannah bug 29393 reported by Mike Frysinger.
+
 2010-04-13 Felipe Bugno <necron@bol.com.br>
 	* doc/syntax/cmake.nanorc: Added cmake syntax highlighting file.
 
diff --git a/src/text.c b/src/text.c
index 38b9338cc0357ba2d10d450a175cd3fdc90de2c2..1536fb4efc3be355f71bef157b342e1069c2588b 100644
--- a/src/text.c
+++ b/src/text.c
@@ -2752,6 +2752,11 @@ const char *do_alt_speller(char *tempfile_name)
     }
 #endif
 
+    if (openfile->totsize == 0) {
+	statusbar(_("Finished checking spelling"));
+	return NULL;
+    }
+
     endwin();
 
     /* Set up an argument list to pass execvp(). */