diff --git a/util/ChangeLog b/util/ChangeLog
index 9ffa0a93..9cdee1d2 100644
--- a/util/ChangeLog
+++ b/util/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2001-04-17  Theodore Tso  <tytso@valinux.com>
+
+	* subst.c (replace_string): Fix replace_string so that it
+		correctly handles replacing a substitution variable with a
+		zero-length string.
+
 2001-01-14  Theodore Ts'o  <tytso@valinux.com>
 
 	* gcc-wall-cleanup: Remove additional annoying warning messages
diff --git a/util/subst.c b/util/subst.c
index 94444ca6..7b7ba838 100644
--- a/util/subst.c
+++ b/util/subst.c
@@ -108,7 +108,9 @@ static void replace_string(char *begin, char *end, char *newstr)
 
 	replace_len = strlen(newstr);
 	len = end - begin;
-	if (replace_len != len+1)
+	if (replace_len == 0)
+		memmove(begin, end+1, strlen(end)+1);
+	else if (replace_len != len+1)
 		memmove(end+(replace_len-len-1), end,
 			strlen(end)+1);
 	memcpy(begin, newstr, replace_len);
@@ -248,7 +250,7 @@ static void parse_config_file(FILE *f)
 			if (!isspace(*cp))
 				break;
 #if 0
-		printf("Substitute: '%s' for '%s'\n", ptr, cp);
+		printf("Substitute: '%s' for '%s'\n", ptr, cp ? cp : "<NULL>");
 #endif
 		add_subst(ptr, cp);
 	}