diff --git a/t/t0090-cache-tree.sh b/t/t0090-cache-tree.sh
index 067f4c6e52..601d02d71f 100755
--- a/t/t0090-cache-tree.sh
+++ b/t/t0090-cache-tree.sh
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ generate_expected_cache_tree_rec () {
 	# ls-files might have foo/bar, foo/bar/baz, and foo/bar/quux
 	# We want to count only foo because it's the only direct child
 	subtrees=$(git ls-files|grep /|cut -d / -f 1|uniq) &&
-	subtree_count=$(echo "$subtrees"|awk -v c=0 '$1 {++c} END {print c}') &&
+	subtree_count=$(echo "$subtrees"|awk -v c=0 '$1 != "" {++c} END {print c}') &&
 	entries=$(git ls-files|wc -l) &&
 	printf "SHA $dir (%d entries, %d subtrees)\n" "$entries" "$subtree_count" &&
 	for subtree in $subtrees