diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index f685b38a2f..269c64873e 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -1744,7 +1744,7 @@ static void output(struct scoreboard *sb, int option)
 static const char *get_next_line(const char *start, const char *end)
 {
 	const char *nl = memchr(start, '\n', end - start);
-	return nl ? nl + 1 : NULL;
+	return nl ? nl + 1 : end;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -1758,25 +1758,19 @@ static int prepare_lines(struct scoreboard *sb)
 	const char *end = buf + len;
 	const char *p;
 	int *lineno;
-	int num = 0, incomplete = 0;
+	int num = 0;
 
-	for (p = get_next_line(buf, end); p; p = get_next_line(p, end))
+	for (p = buf; p < end; p = get_next_line(p, end))
 		num++;
 
-	if (len && end[-1] != '\n')
-		incomplete++; /* incomplete line at the end */
+	sb->lineno = lineno = xmalloc(sizeof(*sb->lineno) * (num + 1));
 
-	sb->lineno = xmalloc(sizeof(*sb->lineno) * (num + incomplete + 1));
-	lineno = sb->lineno;
-
-	*lineno++ = 0;
-	for (p = get_next_line(buf, end); p; p = get_next_line(p, end))
+	for (p = buf; p < end; p = get_next_line(p, end))
 		*lineno++ = p - buf;
 
-	if (incomplete)
-		*lineno++ = len;
+	*lineno = len;
 
-	sb->num_lines = num + incomplete;
+	sb->num_lines = num;
 	return sb->num_lines;
 }