diff --git a/src/system.c b/src/system.c
index ba4ac2d..ea88cd6 100644
--- a/src/system.c
+++ b/src/system.c
@@ -231,8 +231,25 @@ sys_compare_links (struct stat *link_data, struct stat *stat_data)
 int
 sys_truncate (int fd)
 {
+  struct stat st;
   off_t pos = lseek (fd, (off_t) 0, SEEK_CUR);
-  return pos < 0 ? -1 : ftruncate (fd, pos);
+
+  if ( pos < 0)
+    return -1;
+
+  if ( ftruncate(fd, pos) && errno == EPERM ) {
+    /* wrapper around ftruncate:
+     * ftruncate may fail to grow the size of a file with some OS and filesystem
+     * combinations. Linux and vfat/fat is one example. If this is the case do
+     * a write to grow the file to the desired length.
+     */
+    if( (fstat( fd, &st ) == -1) ||
+        (st.st_size >= pos)  ||
+        (lseek( fd, pos - 1, SEEK_SET) == (off_t)-1) ||
+        (write( fd, "\0", 1) == -1) )
+	return -1;
+  }
+  return 0;
 }

 /* Return nonzero if NAME is the name of a regular file, or if the file
