diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index 9e48f86de1..66defbef24 100755
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -15474,10 +15474,6 @@ Eric K.	July 20 2004
 
     html/inc/cache.inc
 
-
-
-
-
 Rom    July 19 2004
     - Fix a bug where during the benchmarking process all the active tasks
       would die off.
@@ -15664,3 +15660,11 @@ Eric K. July 22 2004
 	    top_hosts.php
 	    top_teams.php
 	    top_users.php
+
+Karl 2004-07-23
+    - added argument check to create_work process_wu_template if <file_number>
+      isn't found (otherwise it just silently uses the previous command-line
+      argument as a file_ref!)
+
+    tools/
+        backend_lib.C
diff --git a/tools/backend_lib.C b/tools/backend_lib.C
index 8ee153c9b3..0e8444e5c7 100644
--- a/tools/backend_lib.C
+++ b/tools/backend_lib.C
@@ -132,6 +132,10 @@ static int process_wu_template(
                 } else if (parse_str(p, "<open_name>", open_name, sizeof(open_name))) {
                     continue;
                 } else if (match_tag(p, "</file_ref>")) {
+                    if (file_number < 0) {
+                        fprintf(stderr, "No file number found\n");
+                        return ERR_XML_PARSE;
+                    }
                     sprintf(buf,
                         "<file_ref>\n"
                         "    <file_name>%s</file_name>\n"