diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/gitrepo/RepoCommand.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/gitrepo/RepoCommand.java
index b967c968d..c99997553 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/gitrepo/RepoCommand.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/gitrepo/RepoCommand.java
@@ -182,6 +182,15 @@ public class RepoCommand extends GitCommand<RevCommit> {
 					.setURI(uri)
 					.call()
 					.getRepository();
+			try {
+				return readFileFromRepo(repo, ref, path);
+			} finally {
+				FileUtils.delete(dir, FileUtils.RECURSIVE);
+			}
+		}
+
+		protected byte[] readFileFromRepo(Repository repo,
+				String ref, String path) throws GitAPIException, IOException {
 			ObjectReader reader = repo.newObjectReader();
 			byte[] result;
 			try {
@@ -189,7 +198,6 @@ public class RepoCommand extends GitCommand<RevCommit> {
 				result = reader.open(oid).getBytes(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
 			} finally {
 				reader.release();
-				FileUtils.delete(dir, FileUtils.RECURSIVE);
 			}
 			return result;
 		}