diff --git a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
index e01e4e1..e61780a 100644
--- a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
+++ b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
@@ -556,7 +556,9 @@ sub email {
 	my $mailname='';
 	if (open (MAILNAME,"</etc/mailname")) {
 		$mailname=<MAILNAME>;
-		chomp $mailname;
+		if (defined $mailname) {
+			chomp $mailname;
+		}
 		close MAILNAME;
 	}
 	if (!$mailname) {
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 5202d6e..8731bdf 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+alien (7.21) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Deal with empty /etc/mailname, Closes: #90727
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:19:17 -0800
+
 alien (7.20) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Updated to use debhelper v3 when converting packages. This
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index b0c8317..bcac23f 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Section: admin
 Priority: optional
 Build-Depends-Indep: debhelper (>= 3)
 Maintainer: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>
-Standards-Version: 3.5.0.0
+Standards-Version: 3.5.2.0
 
 Package: alien
 Architecture: all