diff -urNp cpio-2.10-orig/src/copyin.c cpio-2.10/src/copyin.c
--- cpio-2.10-orig/src/copyin.c	2010-02-22 12:57:59.000000000 +0100
+++ cpio-2.10/src/copyin.c	2010-02-22 12:55:26.000000000 +0100
@@ -944,20 +944,23 @@ read_pattern_file ()
   pattern_fp = fopen (pattern_file_name, "r");
   if (pattern_fp == NULL)
     open_error (pattern_file_name);
-  while (ds_fgetstr (pattern_fp, &pattern_name, '\n') != NULL)
-    {
-      if (new_num_patterns >= max_new_patterns)
-	{
-	  max_new_patterns += 1;
-	  new_save_patterns = (char **)
-	    xrealloc ((char *) new_save_patterns,
-		      max_new_patterns * sizeof (char *));
-	}
-      new_save_patterns[new_num_patterns] = xstrdup (pattern_name.ds_string);
-      ++new_num_patterns;
-    }
-  if (ferror (pattern_fp) || fclose (pattern_fp) == EOF)
-    close_error (pattern_file_name);
+  else
+  {
+    while (ds_fgetstr (pattern_fp, &pattern_name, '\n') != NULL)
+      {
+        if (new_num_patterns >= max_new_patterns)
+        {
+          max_new_patterns += 1;
+          new_save_patterns = (char **)
+          xrealloc ((char *) new_save_patterns,
+            max_new_patterns * sizeof (char *));
+        }
+        new_save_patterns[new_num_patterns] = xstrdup (pattern_name.ds_string);
+        ++new_num_patterns;
+      }
+    if (ferror (pattern_fp) || fclose (pattern_fp) == EOF)
+      close_error (pattern_file_name);
+  }
 
   for (i = 0; i < num_patterns; ++i)
     new_save_patterns[i] = save_patterns[i];