diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 2a5fdab50c..13e8dea4dd 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Sat Apr 18 22:19:10 PDT 1998 Manish Singh <yosh@gimp.org>
+
+	* app/gimprc.c: don't dereference NULL pointer when a gimprc
+	variable is used before it's defined. Exit gracefully
+
 Sat Apr 18 11:45:04 PDT 1998 Manish Singh <yosh@gimp.org>
 
 	* Made 0.99.27 release
diff --git a/app/gimprc.c b/app/gimprc.c
index 311a2cebf8..c57a799ea8 100644
--- a/app/gimprc.c
+++ b/app/gimprc.c
@@ -1396,6 +1396,10 @@ transform_path (char *path,
 		{
 		  is_env = TRUE;
 		}
+	      else
+		{
+		  terminate("gimprc token referenced but not defined: %s", token);
+		}
 	    }
 	  tmp2 = transform_path (tmp2, FALSE);
 	  if (is_env)