diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ac50e7fa14..558a81c9aa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ AC_PROG_LN_S
 AC_CHECK_PROG(STRIP, strip, strip, :)
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
 
-AC_CHECK_PROGS([perl_found], [perl], [yes], [no])
+AC_CHECK_PROG([perl_found], [perl], [yes], [no])
 AM_CONDITIONAL([RUN_OPTLIB2C], [test "${perl_found}" = "yes"])
 AM_CONDITIONAL([RUN_TXT2CSTR], [test "${perl_found}" = "yes"])
 
diff --git a/main/args.c b/main/args.c
index bb32202206..3bf012b011 100644
--- a/main/args.c
+++ b/main/args.c
@@ -145,8 +145,8 @@ static char* nextFileLine (FILE* const fp)
 					c = ungetc (c, fp);
 			}
 			vStringStripTrailing (vs);
-			result = xMalloc (vStringLength (vs) + 1, char);
 			vStringStripLeading (vs);
+			result = xMalloc (vStringLength (vs) + 1, char);
 			strcpy (result, vStringValue (vs));
 		}
 		vStringDelete (vs);