diff --git a/builtin-init-db.c b/builtin-init-db.c
index e23b8438c741651f48bbf529f89d0336cc718fed..c68a3b1e7409cb15879724d9acef1cecc97ab9fe 100644
--- a/builtin-init-db.c
+++ b/builtin-init-db.c
@@ -127,6 +127,8 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *template_dir)
 			template_dir = strbuf_detach(&d, NULL);
 		}
 	}
+	if (!template_dir[0])
+		return;
 	strcpy(template_path, template_dir);
 	template_len = strlen(template_path);
 	if (template_path[template_len-1] != '/') {
diff --git a/t/t0001-init.sh b/t/t0001-init.sh
index d31887f9bf35a7fa9e31b1eb859a9cf21c918d6c..c0b781ae49af6cdc8a9bcc4a551310637366eb8f 100755
--- a/t/t0001-init.sh
+++ b/t/t0001-init.sh
@@ -141,4 +141,30 @@ test_expect_success 'reinit' '
 	test_cmp again/empty again/err2
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'init with --template' '
+	mkdir template-source &&
+	echo content >template-source/file &&
+	(
+		mkdir template-custom &&
+		cd template-custom &&
+		git init --template=../template-source
+	) &&
+	test_cmp template-source/file template-custom/.git/file
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'init with --template (blank)' '
+	(
+		mkdir template-plain &&
+		cd template-plain &&
+		git init
+	) &&
+	test -f template-plain/.git/info/exclude &&
+	(
+		mkdir template-blank &&
+		cd template-blank &&
+		git init --template=
+	) &&
+	! test -f template-blank/.git/info/exclude
+'
+
 test_done