1 files changed, 6 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/tar.c b/tar.c
index cd563393b..ea0247e56 100644
--- a/tar.c
+++ b/tar.c
@@ -528,7 +528,10 @@ char **merge_list(char **include_list, char **exclude_list)
         int new_include_count = 0;
         int include_count = 0;
         int exclude_count;
-        
+
+        if (include_list == NULL)
+                return exclude_list;
+
         while (include_list[include_count] != NULL) {
                 int found = FALSE;
                 exclude_count = 0;
@@ -684,8 +687,8 @@ int tar_main(int argc, char **argv)
 #ifdef BB_FEATURE_TAR_EXCLUDE
         /* Remove excluded files from the include list */
         if (exclude_list != NULL) {
-                /* If both an exclude and include file list was present then
-                 * its an exclude from include list only, if not its really an
+                /* If both an exclude and include file list were present then
+                 * it's an exclude from include list only, if not it's really an
                  * exclude list (and a poor choice of variable names) */
                 if (include_list == NULL) {
                         extract_function |= extract_exclude_list;