diff --git a/tests/path-references.dts b/tests/path-references.dts
index 8c66d80..1fb7d70 100644
--- a/tests/path-references.dts
+++ b/tests/path-references.dts
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 	foobar {
 		n3: baz {
 			ref = &{/foo/baz};
-			lref = &n4;
+			lref = start: &n4 end:;
 		};
 	};
 	foo {
diff --git a/tests/run_tests.sh b/tests/run_tests.sh
index e3e64e8..e7ee42b 100755
--- a/tests/run_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/run_tests.sh
@@ -572,6 +572,12 @@ dtc_tests () {
         run_dtc_test -I dts -O dts $tree.test.dts
         run_wrap_test cmp $tree $tree.test.dts
     done
+    for tree in path-references; do
+        run_dtc_test -I dts -O dtb -o $tree.test.dtb $tree.dts
+        run_dtc_test -I dts -O dts -o $tree.test.dts $tree.dts
+        run_dtc_test -I dts -O dtb -o $tree.test.dts.test.dtb $tree.test.dts
+        run_test dtbs_equal_ordered $tree.test.dtb $tree.test.dts.test.dtb
+    done
 
     # Check -Oyaml output
     if pkg-config --exists yaml-0.1; then
diff --git a/treesource.c b/treesource.c
index c1fdb86..93fd8ac 100644
--- a/treesource.c
+++ b/treesource.c
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ static bool isstring(char c)
 static void write_propval_string(FILE *f, const char *s, size_t len)
 {
 	const char *end = s + len - 1;
+
+	if (!len)
+		return;
+
 	assert(*end == '\0');
 
 	fprintf(f, "\"");