diff -urN src.orig/expand.c src/expand.c
--- src.orig/expand.c	Tue Jan  2 13:25:15 2007
+++ src/expand.c	Thu Jan  4 09:22:47 2007
@@ -5499,6 +5499,7 @@
 
 errno = 0;
 expand_string_message = NULL;               /* Indicates no error */
+if (*s == 0) return 0;
 value = strtol(CS s, CSS &endptr, 0);
 
 if (endptr == s)