diff --git a/src/Context.cpp b/src/Context.cpp
index 215ae44ff..b78866f3e 100644
--- a/src/Context.cpp
+++ b/src/Context.cpp
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ int Context::initialize (int argc, const char** argv)
     assumeLocations ();
 
     // Initialize the command line parser.
-    program = argv[0];
+    program = (argc ? argv[0] : "task");
     parser.initialize (argc, argv);                 // task arg0 arg1 ...
 
     // echo one two -- three | task zero --> task zero one two