diff -Naur --exclude Makefile --exclude info wfdb-10.5.19/doc/wag-src/wfdb2mat.1 wfdb-10.5.20/doc/wag-src/wfdb2mat.1
--- wfdb-10.5.19/doc/wag-src/wfdb2mat.1	2010-04-12 10:16:44.000000000 -0400
+++ wfdb-10.5.20/doc/wag-src/wfdb2mat.1	2013-08-29 08:27:14.000000000 -0400
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 after reading it!
 .PP
 This program writes version 4 MAT-file format output files (see
-.br
 http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/pdf_doc/matlab/matfile_format.pdf
 for details).
 The samples are written as 32-bit signed integers in little-endian format
@@ -106,7 +105,7 @@
 .SH AVAILABILITY
 This program is provided in the \fIconvert\fR directory of the WFDB Software
 Package.  Run \fBmake\fR in that directory to compile and install it if it
-have not been installed already.
+has not been installed already.
 .PP
 The PhysioNet ATM (http://physionet.org/cgi-bin/ATM) provides web access to
 \fBwfdb2mat\fR (select \fBExport signals as .mat\fR from the Toolbox). 
diff -Naur --exclude Makefile --exclude info wfdb-10.5.19/doc/wpg-src/wpg0.tex wfdb-10.5.20/doc/wpg-src/wpg0.tex
--- wfdb-10.5.19/doc/wpg-src/wpg0.tex	2013-07-21 11:36:56.000000000 -0400
+++ wfdb-10.5.20/doc/wpg-src/wpg0.tex	2013-09-02 22:37:30.000000000 -0400
@@ -9051,6 +9051,11 @@
 
 @unnumberedsec WFDB 10.5
 
+@unnumberedsubsec Changes in version 10.5.20 (2 September 2013)
+
+Absolute pathnames are not tested in @code{wfdb_open()} unless the WFDB
+path contains an empty component.
+
 @unnumberedsubsec Changes in version 10.5.19 (21 July 2013)
 
 This release includes fixes in lib/signal.c for several bugs that sometimes
diff -Naur --exclude Makefile --exclude info wfdb-10.5.19/lib/wfdb.h wfdb-10.5.20/lib/wfdb.h
--- wfdb-10.5.19/lib/wfdb.h	2013-07-21 19:08:36.000000000 -0400
+++ wfdb-10.5.20/lib/wfdb.h	2013-09-02 18:05:30.000000000 -0400
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 /* WFDB library version. */
 #define WFDB_MAJOR   10
 #define WFDB_MINOR   5
-#define WFDB_RELEASE 19
+#define WFDB_RELEASE 20
 #define WFDB_NETFILES 1	/* if 1, library includes code for HTTP, FTP clients */
 #define WFDB_NETFILES_LIBCURL 1
 
diff -Naur --exclude Makefile --exclude info wfdb-10.5.19/lib/wfdbio.c wfdb-10.5.20/lib/wfdbio.c
--- wfdb-10.5.19/lib/wfdbio.c	2013-02-16 17:39:25.000000000 -0500
+++ wfdb-10.5.20/lib/wfdbio.c	2013-09-02 18:13:40.000000000 -0400
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /* file: wfdbio.c	G. Moody	18 November 1988
-                        Last revised:	16 February 2013       wfdblib 10.5.18
+                        Last revised:   2 September 2013       wfdblib 10.5.20
 Low-level I/O functions for the WFDB library
 
 _______________________________________________________________________________
@@ -981,11 +981,10 @@
     /* Parse the WFDB path if not done previously. */
     if (wfdb_path_list == NULL) (void)getwfdb();
 
-    /* If the filename contains '://', or if it begins with a directory
-       separator, it's an absolute URL or pathname.  In this case, don't search
-       the WFDB path, but add its parent directory to the path if the file can
-       be read. */
-    if (strstr(r, "://") || *r == DSEP) {
+    /* If the filename begins with 'http://' or 'https://', it's a URL.  In
+       this case, don't search the WFDB path, but add its parent directory
+       to the path if the file can be read. */
+    if (strncmp(r, "http://", 7) == 0 || strncmp(r, "https://", 8) == 0) {
 	if (strlen(r) + strlen(s) >= MFNLEN)
 	    return (NULL);  /* name too long */
 	spr1(wfdb_filename, r, s);
diff -Naur --exclude Makefile --exclude info wfdb-10.5.19/NEWS wfdb-10.5.20/NEWS
--- wfdb-10.5.19/NEWS	2013-07-21 23:13:22.999232280 -0400
+++ wfdb-10.5.20/NEWS	2013-09-02 22:44:49.041000895 -0400
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+10.5.20 (2 September 2013):
+	Absolute pathnames are not tested in wfdb_open() unless the WFDB
+	path contains an empty component.
+
 10.5.19 (21 July 2013):
 	This release includes fixes in lib/signal.c for several bugs that
 	sometimes caused findsig(), getvec(), and sample() to return incorrect