diff --git a/programs/fileio.c b/programs/fileio.c
index b7b201e02..02f42e891 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.c
+++ b/programs/fileio.c
@@ -732,7 +732,10 @@ static int FIO_decompressDstFile(dRess_t ress,
     result = FIO_decompressSrcFile(ress, srcFileName);
 
     if (fclose(ress.dstFile)) EXM_THROW(38, "Write error : cannot properly close %s", dstFileName);
-    if (result != 0) if (remove(dstFileName)) result=1;   /* don't do anything if remove fails */
+    if ( (result != 0)
+       && strcmp(dstFileName, nulmark)  /* special case : don't remove() /dev/null (#316) */
+       && remove(dstFileName) )
+        result=1;   /* don't do anything special if remove fails */
     return result;
 }