diff --git a/files/fimplate.py b/files/fimplate.py
index 79a3054..736b6e2 100755
--- a/files/fimplate.py
+++ b/files/fimplate.py
@@ -60,10 +60,11 @@ else:
 for l in in_reader:
     for p in pairs:
         value=p[1]
-        if value[0]=="@":
-            value=open(value[1:],'rt').read()
-        elif value[0:2]=="\\@":
-            value=value[1:]
+        if len(value)>0:
+            if value[0]=="@":
+                value=open(value[1:],'rt').read()
+            elif value[0:2]=="\\@":
+                value=value[1:]
         l=l.replace(p[0],value)
     if options.env:
         var_list=[m.group(0) for m in re.finditer('\${[^ ]+}', l)]