diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
index 9bd30b883..1eb218c86 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
@@ -502,6 +502,22 @@ public class URIishTest {
 		assertEquals(u, new URIish(str));
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testSshProtoHostWithEmptyPortAndPath() throws Exception {
+		final String str = "ssh://example.com:/path";
+		URIish u = new URIish(str);
+		assertEquals("ssh", u.getScheme());
+		assertTrue(u.isRemote());
+		assertEquals("/path", u.getRawPath());
+		assertEquals("/path", u.getPath());
+		assertEquals("example.com", u.getHost());
+		assertEquals(-1, u.getPort());
+		assertEquals("ssh://example.com/path", u.toString());
+		assertEquals("ssh://example.com/path", u.toASCIIString());
+		assertEquals(u, new URIish(str));
+		assertEquals(u, new URIish("ssh://example.com/path"));
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testSshProtoWithUserAndPort() throws Exception {
 		final String str = "ssh://user@example.com:33/some/p ath";
@@ -972,13 +988,6 @@ public class URIishTest {
 		assertEquals("b.txt", u.getHumanishName());
 	}
 
-	@Test
-	public void testMissingPort() throws URISyntaxException {
-		final String incorrectSshUrl = "ssh://some-host:/path/to/repository.git";
-		URIish u = new URIish(incorrectSshUrl);
-		assertFalse(TransportGitSsh.PROTO_SSH.canHandle(u));
-	}
-
 	@Test
 	public void testALot() throws URISyntaxException {
 		// user pass host port path
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
index a41e47ec8..a048fe30f 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ public class URIish implements Serializable {
 	 * Part of a pattern which matches the optional port part of URIs. Defines
 	 * one capturing group containing the port without the preceding colon.
 	 */
-	private static final String OPT_PORT_P = "(?::(\\d+))?"; //$NON-NLS-1$
+	private static final String OPT_PORT_P = "(?::(\\d*))?"; //$NON-NLS-1$
 
 	/**
 	 * Part of a pattern which matches the ~username part (e.g. /~root in
@@ -224,11 +224,23 @@ public class URIish implements Serializable {
 			scheme = matcher.group(1);
 			user = unescape(matcher.group(2));
 			pass = unescape(matcher.group(3));
-			host = unescape(matcher.group(4));
-			if (matcher.group(5) != null)
-				port = Integer.parseInt(matcher.group(5));
-			rawPath = cleanLeadingSlashes(
-					n2e(matcher.group(6)) + n2e(matcher.group(7)), scheme);
+			// empty ports are in general allowed, except for URLs like
+			// file://D:/path for which it is more desirable to parse with
+			// host=null and path=D:/path
+			String portString = matcher.group(5);
+			if ("file".equals(scheme) && "".equals(portString)) { //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
+				rawPath = cleanLeadingSlashes(
+						n2e(matcher.group(4)) + ":" + portString //$NON-NLS-1$
+								+ n2e(matcher.group(6)) + n2e(matcher.group(7)),
+						scheme);
+			} else {
+				host = unescape(matcher.group(4));
+				if (portString != null && portString.length() > 0) {
+					port = Integer.parseInt(portString);
+				}
+				rawPath = cleanLeadingSlashes(
+						n2e(matcher.group(6)) + n2e(matcher.group(7)), scheme);
+			}
 			path = unescape(rawPath);
 			return;
 		}