diff --git a/bfd/ChangeLog b/bfd/ChangeLog
index 8645db0104..e4c4f92d6e 100644
--- a/bfd/ChangeLog
+++ b/bfd/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2003-08-03  Jeff Muizelaar  <muizelaar@rogers.com>
+
+	* coffcode.h: (coff_slurp_line_table) Return with a warning
+	message if the line number table could not be read.
+
 2003-08-04  Nick Clifton  <nickc@redhat.com>
 
 	* elflink.h (elf_link_add_object_symbols): Prepend "warning: "
diff --git a/bfd/coffcode.h b/bfd/coffcode.h
index b8dde1ab28..3b39f095af 100644
--- a/bfd/coffcode.h
+++ b/bfd/coffcode.h
@@ -4407,6 +4407,13 @@ coff_slurp_line_table (abfd, asect)
 
   amt = (bfd_size_type) bfd_coff_linesz (abfd) * asect->lineno_count;
   native_lineno = (LINENO *) buy_and_read (abfd, asect->line_filepos, amt);
+  if (native_lineno == NULL)
+    {
+      (*_bfd_error_handler)
+        (_("%s: warning: line number table read failed"),
+	 bfd_archive_filename (abfd));
+      return FALSE;
+    }
   amt = ((bfd_size_type) asect->lineno_count + 1) * sizeof (alent);
   lineno_cache = (alent *) bfd_alloc (abfd, amt);
   if (lineno_cache == NULL)