Index: sftp-client.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/ssh/sftp-client.c,v
retrieving revision 1.77
diff -u -p -r1.77 sftp-client.c
--- sftp-client.c	16 Sep 2007 00:55:52 -0000	1.77
+++ sftp-client.c	4 Nov 2007 16:41:11 -0000
@@ -768,8 +768,10 @@ do_download(struct sftp_conn *conn, char
 	TAILQ_INIT(&requests);
 
 	a = do_stat(conn, remote_path, 0);
-	if (a == NULL)
-		return(-1);
+	if (a == NULL) {
+		mode = 0666;
+		goto try_anyway;
+	}
 
 	/* XXX: should we preserve set[ug]id? */
 	if (a->flags & SSH2_FILEXFER_ATTR_PERMISSIONS)
@@ -788,6 +790,7 @@ do_download(struct sftp_conn *conn, char
 	else
 		size = 0;
 
+try_anyway:
 	buflen = conn->transfer_buflen;
 	buffer_init(&msg);