diff --git a/orte/tools/orte-ps/orte-ps.c b/orte/tools/orte-ps/orte-ps.c
index 196470ed7c..9c008cd32a 100644
--- a/orte/tools/orte-ps/orte-ps.c
+++ b/orte/tools/orte-ps/orte-ps.c
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
  * Copyright (c) 2007      Los Alamos National Security, LLC.  All rights
  *                         reserved.
  * Copyright (c) 2010      Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
- * Copyright (c) 2014-2015 Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2014-2016 Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
  * Copyright (c) 2015      Research Organization for Information Science
  *                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
  * $COPYRIGHT$
@@ -651,7 +651,11 @@ static int pretty_print_vpids(orte_job_t *job) {
     char *snap_ref = NULL;
     char *snap_loc = NULL;
 #endif
-    char **nodename;
+    char **nodename = NULL;
+
+    if (0 == job->num_procs) {
+        return ORTE_SUCCESS;
+    }
 
     /*
      * Caculate segment lengths
@@ -808,7 +812,9 @@ static int pretty_print_vpids(orte_job_t *job) {
         printf("\n");
 
     }
-
+    if (NULL != nodename) {
+        free(nodename);
+    }
     return ORTE_SUCCESS;
 }