diff --git a/src/CHANGELOG b/src/CHANGELOG
index afadd5f21..9d16306ad 100644
--- a/src/CHANGELOG
+++ b/src/CHANGELOG
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ ECL 0.9k:
 
  - Improved hashing on 64-bit machines.
 
+ - The physical pathname format has changed from [device:][[//hostname]/]...
+   to [[device:[//hostname]]/]... The reason is that this allows proper
+   parsing of Unix pathnames such as "//usr/".
+
 * CLOS:
 
  - When caching generic function calls, ECL now uses a thread-local hash table
diff --git a/src/c/pathname.d b/src/c/pathname.d
index 58d6d5969..850504398 100644
--- a/src/c/pathname.d
+++ b/src/c/pathname.d
@@ -535,38 +535,40 @@ ecl_parse_namestring(cl_object s, cl_index start, cl_index end, cl_index *ep,
  physical:
 	/*
 	 * Physical pathname format:
-	 *	[device:][[//hostname]/][directory-component/]*[pathname-name][.pathname-type]
+	 *	[[device:[//hostname]]/][directory-component/]*[pathname-name][.pathname-type]
 	 */
 	logical = FALSE;
 	device = parse_word(s, is_colon, WORD_INCLUDE_DELIM|WORD_EMPTY_IS_NIL,
 			    start, end, ep);
-	if (device == @':error')
+	if (device == @':error' || device == Cnil) {
+		/* We only parse a hostname when the device was present. */
 		device = Cnil;
-	else if (device != Cnil) {
-		if (!ecl_stringp(device))
-			return Cnil;
+		host = Cnil;
+	} else if (!ecl_stringp(device)) {
+		return Cnil;
+	} else {
+		/* Files have no effective device. */
 		if (@string-equal(2, device, @':file') == Ct)
 			device = Cnil;
-	}
-	start = *ep;
-	if ((start+2) <= end && is_slash(ecl_char(s, start)) &&
-	    is_slash(ecl_char(s, start+1)))
-	{
-		host = parse_word(s, is_slash, WORD_EMPTY_IS_NIL,
-				  start+2, end, ep);
-		if (host != Cnil) {
-			start = *ep;
-			if (is_slash(ecl_char(s,--start))) *ep = start;
+		start = *ep;
+		host = Cnil;
+		if ((start+2) <= end && is_slash(ecl_char(s, start)) &&
+		    is_slash(ecl_char(s, start+1)))
+		{
+			host = parse_word(s, is_slash, WORD_EMPTY_IS_NIL,
+					  start+2, end, ep);
+			if (host == @':error') {
+				host = Cnil;
+			} else if (host != Cnil) {
+				if (!ecl_stringp(host))
+					return Cnil;
+				start = *ep;
+				if (is_slash(ecl_char(s,--start)))
+					*ep = start;
+			}
 		}
-	} else {
-		host = Cnil;
-	}
-	if (host == @':error') {
-		host = Cnil;
-	} else if (host != Cnil) {
-		if (!ecl_stringp(host))
-			return Cnil;
 	}
+ done_device_and_host:
 	path = parse_directories(s, 0, *ep, end, ep);
 	if (CONSP(path)) {
 		if (CAR(path) != @':relative' && CAR(path) != @':absolute')
diff --git a/src/lsp/config.lsp.in b/src/lsp/config.lsp.in
index fe476228c..77aad33bd 100644
--- a/src/lsp/config.lsp.in
+++ b/src/lsp/config.lsp.in
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Returns, as a string, the location of the machine on which ECL runs."
 (defun lisp-implementation-version ()
   "Args:()
 Returns the version of your ECL as a string."
-  "@PACKAGE_VERSION@ (CVS 2008-01-06 16:18)")
+  "@PACKAGE_VERSION@ (CVS 2008-01-07 00:20)")
 
 (defun machine-type ()
   "Args: ()