<hr /><i>rkeene added on 2010-10-13 15:42:47:</i><br />
It works in the trivial case posted previously, but fails with the following kit:
http://code.google.com/p/wubwikit/downloads/detail?name=wub-20100922.kit

In the kit:
<verbatim>
% set fd [open cross.png]
mk7
% fconfigure $fd -encoding binary
% set data [read $fd]; puts [string length $data]
654
% file stat cross.png x
% parray x
x(atime)   = 1285147347
x(blksize) = 135312827
x(blocks)  = 583863729869319636
x(ctime)   = 1285147347
x(dev)     = -143965300
x(gid)     = 0
x(ino)     = 0
x(mode)    = 33279
x(mtime)   = 1285147347
x(nlink)   = 1
x(size)    = 655
x(type)    = file
x(uid)     = 0
</verbatim>