diff --git a/sys/kern/vfs_export.c b/sys/kern/vfs_export.c
index 2f67c054f5f9..3ce2ea4ea0e2 100644
--- a/sys/kern/vfs_export.c
+++ b/sys/kern/vfs_export.c
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ vfs_setpublicfs(struct mount *mp, struct netexport *nep,
 	 * If an indexfile was specified, pull it in.
 	 */
 	if (argp->ex_indexfile != NULL) {
-		if (nfs_pub.np_index != NULL)
+		if (nfs_pub.np_index == NULL)
 			nfs_pub.np_index = malloc(MAXNAMLEN + 1, M_TEMP,
 			    M_WAITOK);
 		error = copyinstr(argp->ex_indexfile, nfs_pub.np_index,