diff --git a/base/libc.jl b/base/libc.jl
index 1d1ba0ea8bf05..5f9ac1dbab61b 100644
--- a/base/libc.jl
+++ b/base/libc.jl
@@ -6,6 +6,22 @@ export FILE, TmStruct, strftime, strptime, getpid, gethostname, free, malloc, ca
 
 include("errno.jl")
 
+## RawFD ##
+
+#Wrapper for an OS file descriptor (on both Unix and Windows)
+immutable RawFD
+    fd::Int32
+    RawFD(fd::Integer) = new(fd)
+    RawFD(fd::RawFD) = fd
+end
+
+Base.convert(::Type{Int32}, fd::RawFD) = fd.fd
+
+dup(x::RawFD) = RawFD(ccall((@windows? :_dup : :dup),Int32,(Int32,),x.fd))
+dup(src::RawFD,target::RawFD) = systemerror("dup",-1==
+    ccall((@windows? :_dup2 : :dup2),Int32,
+    (Int32,Int32),src.fd,target.fd))
+
 ## FILE ##
 
 immutable FILE
@@ -15,13 +31,21 @@ end
 modestr(s::IO) = modestr(isreadable(s), iswritable(s))
 modestr(r::Bool, w::Bool) = r ? (w ? "r+" : "r") : (w ? "w" : throw(ArgumentError("neither readable nor writable")))
 
-function FILE(s::IO)
-    @unix_only FILEp = ccall(:fdopen, Ptr{Void}, (Cint, Ptr{UInt8}), convert(Cint, fd(s)), modestr(s))
-    @windows_only FILEp = ccall(:_fdopen, Ptr{Void}, (Cint, Ptr{UInt8}), convert(Cint, fd(s)), modestr(s))
+function FILE(fd, mode)
+    @unix_only FILEp = ccall(:fdopen, Ptr{Void}, (Cint, Ptr{UInt8}), convert(Cint, fd), mode)
+    @windows_only FILEp = ccall(:_fdopen, Ptr{Void}, (Cint, Ptr{UInt8}), convert(Cint, fd), mode)
     systemerror("fdopen", FILEp == C_NULL)
-    seek(FILE(FILEp), position(s))
+    FILE(FILEp)
+end
+
+function FILE(s::IO)
+    f = FILE(dup(RawFD(fd(s))),modestr(s))
+    seek(f, position(s))
+    f
 end
 
+Base.unsafe_convert(T::Union(Type{Ptr{Void}},Type{Ptr{FILE}}), f::FILE) = convert(T, f.ptr)
+Base.close(f::FILE) = systemerror("fclose", ccall(:fclose, Cint, (Ptr{Void},), f.ptr) != 0)
 Base.convert(::Type{FILE}, s::IO) = FILE(s)
 
 function Base.seek(h::FILE, offset::Integer)
diff --git a/base/sparse/cholmod.jl b/base/sparse/cholmod.jl
index c1cde9968c437..b39ca605dd495 100644
--- a/base/sparse/cholmod.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/cholmod.jl
@@ -663,6 +663,13 @@ for Ti in IndexTypes
             finalizer(s, free!)
             s
         end
+
+        function read_sparse(file::IO, T)
+            cfile = Libc.FILE(file)
+            try return read_sparse(cfile, T)
+            finally close(cfile)
+            end
+        end
     end
 end
 
@@ -791,7 +798,7 @@ Sparse(A::Dense) = dense_to_sparse(A, Cint)
 Sparse(L::Factor) = factor_to_sparse!(copy(L))
 function Sparse(filename::ByteString)
     open(filename) do f
-        return read_sparse(Libc.FILE(f), SuiteSparse_long)
+        return read_sparse(f, SuiteSparse_long)
     end
 end
 
diff --git a/base/stream.jl b/base/stream.jl
index 30155e5ae70e7..9d89e6e6124cd 100644
--- a/base/stream.jl
+++ b/base/stream.jl
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 #TODO: Move stdio detection from C to Julia (might require some Clang magic)
 include("uv_constants.jl")
 
+import .Libc: RawFD, dup
+
 ## types ##
 typealias Callback Union(Function,Bool)
 
@@ -17,15 +19,6 @@ const uvhandles = ObjectIdDict()
 preserve_handle(x) = uvhandles[x] = get(uvhandles,x,0)+1
 unpreserve_handle(x) = (v = uvhandles[x]; v == 1 ? pop!(uvhandles,x) : (uvhandles[x] = v-1); nothing)
 
-#Wrapper for an OS file descriptor (on both Unix and Windows)
-immutable RawFD
-    fd::Int32
-    RawFD(fd::Integer) = new(fd)
-    RawFD(fd::RawFD) = fd
-end
-
-convert(::Type{Int32}, fd::RawFD) = fd.fd
-
 function uv_sizeof_handle(handle)
     if !(UV_UNKNOWN_HANDLE < handle < UV_HANDLE_TYPE_MAX)
         throw(DomainError())
@@ -944,11 +937,6 @@ end
 
 connect(path::AbstractString) = connect(Pipe(),path)
 
-dup(x::RawFD) = RawFD(ccall((@windows? :_dup : :dup),Int32,(Int32,),x.fd))
-dup(src::RawFD,target::RawFD) = systemerror("dup",-1==
-    ccall((@windows? :_dup2 : :dup2),Int32,
-    (Int32,Int32),src.fd,target.fd))
-
 _fd(x::IOStream) = RawFD(fd(x))
 @unix_only _fd(x::AsyncStream) = RawFD(ccall(:jl_uv_handle,Int32,(Ptr{Void},),x.handle))
 @windows_only _fd(x::AsyncStream) = WindowsRawSocket(
diff --git a/test/file.jl b/test/file.jl
index 5db311cd5104c..0ef1586259780 100644
--- a/test/file.jl
+++ b/test/file.jl
@@ -386,18 +386,25 @@ rm(cfile)
 # FILE* interface #
 ###################
 
+function test_LibcFILE(FILEp)
+    buf = Array(UInt8, 8)
+    str = ccall(:fread, Csize_t, (Ptr{Void}, Csize_t, Csize_t, Ptr{Void}), buf, 1, 8, FILEp)
+    @test bytestring(buf) == "Hello, w"
+    @test position(FILEp) == 8
+    seek(FILEp, 5)
+    @test position(FILEp) == 5
+    close(FILEp)
+end
+
 f = open(file, "w")
 write(f, "Hello, world!")
 close(f)
 f = open(file, "r")
-FILEp = convert(Libc.FILE, f)
-buf = Array(UInt8, 8)
-str = ccall(:fread, Csize_t, (Ptr{Void}, Csize_t, Csize_t, Ptr{Void}), buf, 1, 8, FILEp.ptr)
-@test bytestring(buf) == "Hello, w"
-@test position(FILEp) == 8
-seek(FILEp, 5)
-@test position(FILEp) == 5
+test_LibcFILE(convert(Libc.FILE, f))
 close(f)
+@unix_only f = RawFD(ccall(:open, Cint, (Ptr{Uint8}, Cint), file, Base.FS.JL_O_RDONLY))
+@windows_only f = RawFD(ccall(:_open, Cint, (Ptr{Uint8}, Cint), file, Base.FS.JL_O_RDONLY))
+test_LibcFILE(Libc.FILE(f,Libc.modestr(true,false)))
 
 ############
 # Clean up #