diff --git a/editors/awk.c b/editors/awk.c
index 5a504d034..bc9e99a6f 100644
--- a/editors/awk.c
+++ b/editors/awk.c
@@ -2696,7 +2696,8 @@ int awk_main(int argc, char **argv)
 	newfile("/dev/stdout")->F = stdout;
 	newfile("/dev/stderr")->F = stderr;
 
-	for (envp = environ; *envp; envp++) {
+	/* Huh, people report that sometimes environ is NULL. Oh well. */
+	if (environ) for (envp = environ; *envp; envp++) {
 		char *s = xstrdup(*envp);
 		char *s1 = strchr(s, '=');
 		if (s1) {