diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index 00405e5231e..1ac251038b0 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2012-01-10  Tom Tromey  <tromey@redhat.com>
+
+	PR python/13199:
+	* python/python.c (finish_python_initialization): Set sys.argv.
+
 2012-01-10  Doug Evans  <dje@google.com>
 
 	* dwarf2read.c (dwarf_decode_lines): Remove arg "abfd".  New arg
diff --git a/gdb/python/python.c b/gdb/python/python.c
index 5212d4eb927..5a0d7767f14 100644
--- a/gdb/python/python.c
+++ b/gdb/python/python.c
@@ -1366,6 +1366,9 @@ def GdbSetPythonDirectory (dir):\n\
 GdbSetPythonDirectory (gdb.PYTHONDIR)\n\
 # Default prompt hook does nothing.\n\
 prompt_hook = None\n\
+# Ensure that sys.argv is set to something.\n\
+# We do not use PySys_SetArgvEx because it did not appear until 2.6.6.\n\
+sys.argv = ['']\n\
 ");
 
   do_cleanups (cleanup);