c141475cfb7e30227e1e1b715b6bf7b4a1436644
max
  Mon Mar 7 16:35:55 2016 -0800
fix after code review, refs #16971

diff --git src/lib/common.c src/lib/common.c
index 6f852e5..c6b05a2 100644
--- src/lib/common.c
+++ src/lib/common.c
@@ -2268,34 +2268,34 @@
 {
 char *startFirstWord = skipLeadingSpaces(line);
 if (startFirstWord == NULL)
     return NULL;
 char *endFirstWord = skipToSpaces(startFirstWord);
 if (endFirstWord == NULL)
     return cloneString(startFirstWord);
 else
     return cloneStringZ(startFirstWord, endFirstWord - startFirstWord);
 }
 
 char *cloneNotFirstWord(char *s)
 /* return part of string after first space, not changing s. Result has to be freed. */
 {
 if (s==NULL)
-    return emptyForNull(NULL);
+    return cloneString("");
 char* spcPos = stringIn(" ", s);
 if (spcPos==NULL)
-    return emptyForNull(NULL);
+    return cloneString("");
 return cloneString(spcPos+1);
 }
 
 char *lastWordInLine(char *line)
 /* Returns last word in line if any (white space separated).
  * Returns NULL if string is empty.  Removes any terminating white space
  * from line. */
 {
 char *s = line;
 char *word = NULL, *wordEnd = NULL;
 for (;;)
     {
     s = skipLeadingSpaces(s);
     if (s == NULL || s[0] == 0)
 	break;