diff --git a/service/fs_utils.cc b/service/fs_utils.cc
index 774e0c50..2e9db258 100644
--- a/service/fs_utils.cc
+++ b/service/fs_utils.cc
@@ -81,6 +81,20 @@ struct LocalUrlFsHandler : public UrlFsHandler {
         return extractInfo(stats);
     }
 
+    virtual FsObjectInfo tryGetInfo(const Url & url) const
+    {
+        struct stat stats;
+        string path = url.path();
+
+        // cerr << "fs info on path: " + path + "\n";
+        int res = ::stat(path.c_str(), &stats);
+        if (res == -1) {
+            return FsObjectInfo();
+        }
+
+        return extractInfo(stats);
+    }
+    
     virtual void makeDirectory(const Url & url) const
     {
         boost::system::error_code ec;
@@ -174,6 +188,9 @@ struct AtInit {
 /* ensures that local filenames are represented as urls */
 Url makeUrl(const string & urlStr)
 {
+    if (urlStr.empty())
+        throw ML::Exception("can't makeUrl on empty url");
+
     /* scheme is specified */
     if (urlStr.find("://") != string::npos) {
         return Url(urlStr);
@@ -232,24 +249,19 @@ void registerUrlFsHandler(const std::string & scheme,
 }
 
 FsObjectInfo
-getUriObjectInfo(const std::string & url)
+tryGetUriObjectInfo(const std::string & url)
 {
     Url realUrl = makeUrl(url);
-    return findFsHandler(realUrl.scheme())->getInfo(realUrl);
+    return findFsHandler(realUrl.scheme())->tryGetInfo(realUrl);
 }
 
 FsObjectInfo
-tryGetUriObjectInfo(const std::string & url)
+getUriObjectInfo(const std::string & url)
 {
-    JML_TRACE_EXCEPTIONS(false);
-    try {
-        return getUriObjectInfo(url);
-    }
-    catch (...) {
-        return FsObjectInfo();
-    }
+    Url realUrl = makeUrl(url);
+    return findFsHandler(realUrl.scheme())->getInfo(realUrl);
 }
-
+ 
 size_t
 getUriSize(const std::string & url)
 {
@@ -270,7 +282,7 @@ makeUriDirectory(const std::string & url)
     string dirUrl(url);
     size_t slashIdx = dirUrl.rfind('/');
     if (slashIdx == string::npos) {
-        throw ML::Exception("makeUriDirectory cannot work on filenames");
+        throw ML::Exception("makeUriDirectory cannot work on filenames: instead of " + url + " you should probably write file://" + url);
     }
     dirUrl.resize(slashIdx);
 
diff --git a/service/fs_utils.h b/service/fs_utils.h
index abbf4a55..e092d348 100644
--- a/service/fs_utils.h
+++ b/service/fs_utils.h
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ OnUriObject;
 
 struct UrlFsHandler {
     virtual FsObjectInfo getInfo(const Url & url) const = 0;
+    virtual FsObjectInfo tryGetInfo(const Url & url) const = 0;
 
     virtual size_t getSize(const Url & url) const;
     virtual std::string getEtag(const Url & url) const;
diff --git a/service/s3.cc b/service/s3.cc
index 7faa508c..93bfd3fe 100644
--- a/service/s3.cc
+++ b/service/s3.cc
@@ -60,6 +60,13 @@ struct S3UrlFsHandler : public UrlFsHandler {
         return api->getObjectInfo(bucket, url.path().substr(1));
     }
 
+    virtual FsObjectInfo tryGetInfo(const Url & url) const
+    {
+        string bucket = url.host();
+        auto api = getS3ApiForBucket(bucket);
+        return api->tryGetObjectInfo(bucket, url.path().substr(1));
+    }
+
     virtual void makeDirectory(const Url & url) const
     {
     }
diff --git a/types/url.cc b/types/url.cc
index 967c1829..66887db1 100644
--- a/types/url.cc
+++ b/types/url.cc
@@ -181,7 +181,9 @@ std::string
 Url::
 path() const
 {
-    return url->path();
+    if (url->scheme() == "file")
+        return url->host() + url->path();
+    else return url->path();
 }
 
 std::string