diff --git a/libc/init.cpp b/libc/init.cpp
index a8ac106d..dd3e8413 100644
--- a/libc/init.cpp
+++ b/libc/init.cpp
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@
 #include <malloc.h>
 #include <string.h>
 
-extern "C" { char program_invocation_name_data[256] = ""; }
-extern "C" { char* program_invocation_name = program_invocation_name_data; }
+extern "C" { char* program_invocation_name; }
 extern "C" { char* program_invocation_short_name; }
 
 extern "C" void init_error_functions();
@@ -45,9 +44,14 @@ static char* find_last_elem(char* str)
 
 extern "C" void initialize_standard_library(int argc, char* argv[])
 {
-	if ( argc )
-		strcpy(program_invocation_name, argv[0]);
-	program_invocation_short_name =  find_last_elem(program_invocation_name);
+	// We got ourselves a little bootstrap problem. We'd like these variables to
+	// be available during early startup - however, we can't create a copy yet
+	// because the heap isn't initialized yet. Instead, we'll simply point at
+	// the original value - we're safe since argv[0] is not supposed to be
+	// modified until main is run. Once we heap is up, we'll strdup.
+	const char* argv0 = argc ? argv[0] : "";
+	program_invocation_name = (char*) argv0;
+	program_invocation_short_name = find_last_elem((char*) argv0);
 
 	// Initialize stuff such as errno.
 	init_error_functions();
@@ -60,4 +64,8 @@ extern "C" void initialize_standard_library(int argc, char* argv[])
 
 	// Initialize stdio.
 	init_stdio();
+
+	// We can now create a copy of the program name variables safely.
+	program_invocation_name = strdup(program_invocation_name);
+	program_invocation_short_name = find_last_elem(program_invocation_name);
 }