diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index b34c3b7f..dfe75e32 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2004-03-14  Scott James Remnant  <scott@netsplit.com>
+
+	* m4/ltmain.in: Only check precious_files_regex if it is not empty.
+
 2004-03-14  Gary V. Vaughan  <gary@gnu.org>
 
 	* doc/libtool.texi (Autoconf and LTLIBOBJS): The correct version
diff --git a/ltmain.in b/ltmain.in
index d98308cc..c6dddff5 100644
--- a/ltmain.in
+++ b/ltmain.in
@@ -3216,9 +3216,11 @@ EOF
 	    *.$objext)
 	       ;;
 	    $output_objdir/$outputname | $output_objdir/$libname.* | $output_objdir/${libname}${release}.*)
-	       if echo $p | $EGREP -e "$precious_files_regex" >/dev/null 2>&1
-	       then
-		 continue
+	       if test "X$precious_files_regex" != "X"; then
+	         if echo $p | $EGREP -e "$precious_files_regex" >/dev/null 2>&1
+	         then
+		   continue
+		 fi
 	       fi
 	       removelist="$removelist $p"
 	       ;;