diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
index fc3858b7f..1d16b4dd4 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2004-12-22  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
+
+	* path.cc (set_normalized_path): Allow empty pathnames.
+
 2004-12-21  Christopher Faylor  <cgf@timesys.com>
 
 	* spawn.cc (spawn_guts): Force parent to forget about P_DETACH'ed
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/path.cc b/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
index 87f3c7a02..4cb628f9e 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@ path_conv::set_normalized_path (const char *path_copy)
   char *eopath = strchr (path, '\0');
   size_t n;
 
-  if (dev.devn != FH_FS || strncmp (path_copy, "//./", 4) == 0)
+  if (dev.devn != FH_FS || !*path_copy || strncmp (path_copy, "//./", 4) == 0)
     n = strlen (path_copy) + 1;
   else
     {