diff --git a/src/mk-file-embed.pl b/src/mk-file-embed.pl
index 17530cfa14..fcd8e04136 100755
--- a/src/mk-file-embed.pl
+++ b/src/mk-file-embed.pl
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@
 #
 ###########################################################################
 
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
 my $varname = "var";
-if($ARGV[0] eq "--var") {
+if(@ARGV && $ARGV[0] eq "--var") {
     shift;
     $varname = shift @ARGV;
 }