diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 737f40df..5ff62531 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
    Apply patch from Yura Siamashka to use she-bang filetype detection
    also in filetypes_detect_from_filename() which let plugins benefit
    from this feature.
+ * src/document.c:
+   Don't open zero byte sized files read-only (e.g. files in /proc).
 
 
 2008-03-03  Enrico Tröger  <enrico(dot)troeger(at)uvena(dot)de>
diff --git a/src/document.c b/src/document.c
index 542d3ec4..670ae99c 100644
--- a/src/document.c
+++ b/src/document.c
@@ -842,7 +842,9 @@ static gboolean load_text_file(const gchar *locale_filename, const gchar *utf8_f
 	tmp_enc_idx = encodings_scan_unicode_bom(filedata->data, filedata->size, NULL);
 
 	/* check whether the size of the loaded data is equal to the size of the file in the filesystem */
-	if (filedata->len != filedata->size && (
+	/* file size may be 0 to allow opening files in /proc/ which have typically a file size
+	 * of 0 bytes */
+	if (filedata->len != filedata->size && filedata->size != 0 && (
 		tmp_enc_idx == GEANY_ENCODING_UTF_8 || /* tmp_enc_idx can be UTF-7/8/16/32, UCS and None */
 		tmp_enc_idx == GEANY_ENCODING_UTF_7 || /* filter out UTF-7/8 and None where no NULL bytes */
 		tmp_enc_idx == GEANY_ENCODING_NONE))   /* are allowed */