diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index 7ce35acd80..59c3aaaad4 100644
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -9360,3 +9360,12 @@ Charlie 10 Nov 2008 (checked into boinc_core_release_6_3_22 tag)
         AsyncRPC.cpp
         DlgExitMessage.cpp
         DlgOptions.cpp
+
+David  11 Nov 2008
+    - client: don't fclose() time_stats_log if it's NULL
+        Fixes #772
+
+    client/
+        time_stats.cpp
+    lib/
+        parse.cpp
diff --git a/client/time_stats.cpp b/client/time_stats.cpp
index 7ff0a11791..acf5c80af8 100644
--- a/client/time_stats.cpp
+++ b/client/time_stats.cpp
@@ -138,7 +138,9 @@ void send_log_after(const char* filename, double t, MIOFILE& mf) {
 // copy the log file after a given time
 //
 void TIME_STATS::get_log_after(double t, MIOFILE& mf) {
-    fclose(time_stats_log);     // win: can't open twice
+    if (time_stats_log) {
+        fclose(time_stats_log);     // win: can't open twice
+    }
     send_log_after(TIME_STATS_LOG, t, mf);
     time_stats_log = fopen(TIME_STATS_LOG, "a");
 }
diff --git a/lib/parse.cpp b/lib/parse.cpp
index eed794b1f7..7cb558699b 100644
--- a/lib/parse.cpp
+++ b/lib/parse.cpp
@@ -155,6 +155,9 @@ int dup_element_contents(FILE* in, const char* end_tag, char** pp) {
     int nused=0;        // not counting ending NULL
     char* buf = (char*)malloc(bufsize);
 
+    // Start with a big buffer.
+    // When done, copy to an exact-size buffer
+    //
     while (fgets(line, 256, in)) {
         if (strstr(line, end_tag)) {
             *pp = (char*)malloc(nused+1);