diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 50128b852..cc199c207 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
    of the expected format.
    Bugzilla Report 59909
 
+ * Clarified the documentation of <get>'s retries attribute.
+   Bugzilla Report 59930
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
diff --git a/manual/Tasks/get.html b/manual/Tasks/get.html
index 04bc0e4d5..a2c9b7e59 100644
--- a/manual/Tasks/get.html
+++ b/manual/Tasks/get.html
@@ -107,7 +107,10 @@ plain text' authentication is used. This is only secure over an HTTPS link.
   </tr>  
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">retries</td>
-    <td valign="top">the per download number of retries on error<br/>
+    <td valign="top">The number of attempts to make for opening the URI.<br/>
+      The name of the attribute is misleading as a value of 1 means
+      "don't retry on error" and a value of 0 meant don't even try to
+      reach the URI at all.<br/>
       <em>since Ant 1.8.0</em></td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No; default "3"</td>
   </tr>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Get.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Get.java
index 6c5379079..83f3b6bf0 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Get.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Get.java
@@ -413,13 +413,22 @@ public class Get extends Task {
     }
 
     /**
-     * The number of retries to attempt upon error, defaults to 3.
+     * The number of attempts to make for opening the URI, defaults to 3.
      *
-     * @param r retry count
+     * <p>The name of the method is misleading as a value of 1 means
+     * "don't retry on error" and a value of 0 meant don't even try to
+     * reach the URI at all.</p>
+     *
+     * @param r number of attempts to make
      *
      * @since Ant 1.8.0
      */
     public void setRetries(final int r) {
+        if (r <= 0) {
+            log("Setting retries to " + r
+                + " will make the task not even try to reach the URI at all",
+                Project.MSG_WARN);
+        }
         this.numberRetries = r;
     }