diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/fetch/__init__.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/fetch/__init__.py
index e6cc1c535b..b566da4311 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/fetch/__init__.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/fetch/__init__.py
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@ def decodeurl(url):
     >>> decodeurl("http://www.google.com/index.html")
     ('http', 'www.google.com', '/index.html', '', '', {})
 
+    >>> decodeurl("file://gas/COPYING")
+    ('file', '', 'gas/COPYING', '', '', {})
+
     CVS url with username, host and cvsroot. The cvs module to check out is in the
     parameters:
 
@@ -82,7 +85,7 @@ def decodeurl(url):
     parm = m.group('parm')
 
     locidx = location.find('/')
-    if locidx != -1:
+    if locidx != -1 and type.lower() != 'file':
         host = location[:locidx]
         path = location[locidx:]
     else: