Index: load.R
===================================================================
--- load.R	(revision 56743)
+++ load.R	(working copy)
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
         ## Since the connection is not open this opens it in binary mode
         ## and closes it again.
         magic <- readChar(con, 5L, useBytes = TRUE)
+        if (length(magic)==0) stop("empty (zero-byte) file")
         if (!grepl("RD[AX]2\n", magic)) {
             ## a check while we still know the call to load()
             if(grepl("RD[ABX][12]\r", magic))