diff --git a/mergetools/p4merge b/mergetools/p4merge
index 52f7c8f705..8a36916567 100644
--- a/mergetools/p4merge
+++ b/mergetools/p4merge
@@ -30,5 +30,5 @@ create_empty_file () {
 	empty_file="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/git-difftool-p4merge-empty-file.$$"
 	>"$empty_file"
 
-	printf "$empty_file"
+	printf "%s" "$empty_file"
 }