diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e41a0b108d..e4184c411f 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-Thu Oct  4 16:15:55 2007  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+Thu Oct  4 16:28:33 2007  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* encoding.c (rb_obj_encoding): returns encoding of the given object.
 
-	* parse.y (reg_compile_gen): copy encoding from source string.
+	* parse.y (reg_compile_gen): copy encoding from source string if
+	  non-empty.
 
 	* re.c (Init_Regexp): new method Regexp#encoding.
 
diff --git a/parse.y b/parse.y
index b81e37ee0f..3b4065ac06 100644
--- a/parse.y
+++ b/parse.y
@@ -8170,7 +8170,7 @@ reg_compile_gen(struct parser_params* parser, VALUE str, int options)
 	compile_error(PARSER_ARG "%s", RSTRING_PTR(re));
 	return Qnil;
     }
-    rb_enc_copy(re, str);
+    if (str) rb_enc_copy(re, str);
     return re;
 }