diff -r 7ffe3d304487 Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Fri Dec 09 11:29:44 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Fri Dec 09 16:33:26 2011 +0200
@@ -1460,6 +1460,17 @@
     >>> assert hasattr(err, 'reason')
     >>> err.reason
     'something bad happened'
+
+    HTTPError is a subclass of addinfourl, so geturl(), getcode() and info()
+    should work.
+
+    >>> url = "http://url.com"
+    >>> code = 404
+    >>> hdrs = {"foo": "bar"}
+    >>> err = urllib.error.HTTPError(url, code, None, hdrs, None)
+    >>> assert err.geturl() == url
+    >>> assert err.getcode() == code
+    >>> assert err.info() == hdrs
     """
 
 def test_main(verbose=None):
diff -r 7ffe3d304487 Lib/urllib/error.py
--- a/Lib/urllib/error.py	Fri Dec 09 11:29:44 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/urllib/error.py	Fri Dec 09 16:33:26 2011 +0200
@@ -40,10 +40,8 @@
     __super_init = urllib.response.addinfourl.__init__
 
     def __init__(self, url, code, msg, hdrs, fp):
-        self.code = code
         self.msg = msg
         self.hdrs = hdrs
-        self.fp = fp
         self.filename = url
         # The addinfourl classes depend on fp being a valid file
         # object.  In some cases, the HTTPError may not have a valid
@@ -51,6 +49,11 @@
         # not initialize the base classes.
         if fp is not None:
             self.__super_init(fp, hdrs, url, code)
+        else:
+            self.headers = hdrs
+            self.url = url
+            self.code = code
+            self.fp = fp
 
     def __str__(self):
         return 'HTTP Error %s: %s' % (self.code, self.msg)