From: Georges Khaznadar <georgesk@debian.org>
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2024 16:53:53 +0100
Subject: accept_empty_var

===================================================================
---
 crontab.5 | 2 +-
 env.c     | 3 ++-
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/crontab.5 b/crontab.5
index b3f3d15..aa68e44 100644
--- a/crontab.5
+++ b/crontab.5
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ The
 .I value
 string may be placed in quotes (single or double, but matching) to preserve
 leading or trailing blanks.  To define an empty variable, quotes
-.B must
+can
 be used.
 .PP
 The
diff --git a/env.c b/env.c
index a03bfac..3905b02 100644
--- a/env.c
+++ b/env.c
@@ -231,7 +231,8 @@ load_env(envstr, f)
 			abort();
 		}
 	}
-	if (state != FINI && !(state == VALUE && !quotechar)) {
+	if (state != FINI && !(state == VALUE && !quotechar)
+		&& !(state == EQ2 && !quotechar)) {
 		Debug(DPARS, ("load_env, not an env var, state = %d\n", state))
 		fseek(f, filepos, 0);
 		Set_LineNum(fileline);