diff --git a/src/extra-tools/execl-envfile.c b/src/extra-tools/execl-envfile.c
index 52dcbe87ef095d0a6cae988010ab98732c8e1c46..68c6f4af5140ee03aae4d7656117fadb3612c28c 100644
--- a/src/extra-tools/execl-envfile.c
+++ b/src/extra-tools/execl-envfile.c
@@ -356,6 +356,9 @@ int main (int argc, char const *const *argv, char const *const *envp)
             if (!environ_get_key_nclean(&sa, &pos))
                 log_dieu(LOG_EXIT_SYS, "get key from line: ", sa.s + pos) ;
 
+            if (!sa.len)
+                continue ;
+
             char tkey[strlen(sa.s) + 1] ;
             auto_strings(tkey, sa.s) ;