diff --git a/lib/libc/string/strsep.3 b/lib/libc/string/strsep.3
index 4e9dad9db5ae..3013fb3b313e 100644
--- a/lib/libc/string/strsep.3
+++ b/lib/libc/string/strsep.3
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 .\"	@(#)strsep.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
 .\" $FreeBSD$
 .\"
-.Dd December 5, 2008
+.Dd May 28, 2018
 .Dt STRSEP 3
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -86,12 +86,12 @@ to parse a string, and prints each token in separate line:
 char *token, *string, *tofree;
 
 tofree = string = strdup("abc,def,ghi");
-assert(string != NULL);
-
-while ((token = strsep(&string, ",")) != NULL)
-	printf("%s\en", token);
+if (string != NULL)
+	while ((token = strsep(&string, ",")) != NULL)
+		printf("%s\en", token);
 
 free(tofree);
+free(string);
 .Ed
 .Pp
 The following uses