diff -urN binutils-2.12.90.0.12/ld/emultempl/elf32.em binutils-2.12.90.0.12.new/ld/emultempl/elf32.em
--- binutils-2.12.90.0.12/ld/emultempl/elf32.em	Wed Jun 19 00:41:59 2002
+++ binutils-2.12.90.0.12.new/ld/emultempl/elf32.em	Wed Jun 26 10:00:26 2002
@@ -672,6 +672,8 @@
 	      && command_line.rpath == NULL)
 	    {
 	      lib_path = (const char *) getenv ("LD_RUN_PATH");
+	      if ((lib_path) && (strlen (lib_path) == 0))
+		  lib_path = NULL;
 	      if (gld${EMULATION_NAME}_search_needed (lib_path, l->name,
 						      force))
 		break;
@@ -867,6 +869,8 @@
   rpath = command_line.rpath;
   if (rpath == NULL)
     rpath = (const char *) getenv ("LD_RUN_PATH");
+  if ((rpath) && (strlen (rpath) == 0))
+      rpath = NULL;
   if (! (bfd_elf${ELFSIZE}_size_dynamic_sections
          (output_bfd, command_line.soname, rpath,
 	  command_line.filter_shlib,