diff --git a/src/lib/searchpath.cpp b/src/lib/searchpath.cpp
index 393c16b66..d328a388b 100644
--- a/src/lib/searchpath.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/searchpath.cpp
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ namespace lib {
   
   
   
-  regex SearchPathSplitter::EXTRACT_PATHSPEC ("(\\$?ORIGIN/)?([^:]+)");
+  regex SearchPathSplitter::EXTRACT_PATHSPEC ("(\\$?ORIGIN/?)?([^:]*)");
   
   
   /** @internal helper to figure out the installation directory,