diff --git a/scripts/xsparse.c b/scripts/xsparse.c
index 8559d105..4632e9ea 100644
--- a/scripts/xsparse.c
+++ b/scripts/xsparse.c
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ static void *
 emalloc (size_t size)
 {
   char *p = malloc (size);
-  if (!p)
+  if (!p && size)
     die (1, "not enough memory");
   return p;
 }