diff --git a/scripts/clean-includes b/scripts/clean-includes
index d37bd4f692..86944f27fc 100755
--- a/scripts/clean-includes
+++ b/scripts/clean-includes
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ cat >"$COCCIFILE" <<EOT
 )
 EOT
 
+files=
 for f in "$@"; do
   case "$f" in
     *.c.inc)
@@ -144,6 +145,7 @@ for f in "$@"; do
       continue
       ;;
   esac
+  files="$files $f"
 
   if [ "$MODE" = "c" ]; then
     # First, use Coccinelle to add qemu/osdep.h before the first existing include
@@ -174,8 +176,8 @@ for f in "$@"; do
 
 done
 
-if [ "$DUPHEAD" = "yes" ]; then
-    egrep "^[[:space:]]*#[[:space:]]*include" "$@" | tr -d '[:blank:]' \
+if [ "$DUPHEAD" = "yes" ] && [ -n "$files" ]; then
+    egrep "^[[:space:]]*#[[:space:]]*include" $files | tr -d '[:blank:]' \
         | sort | uniq -c | awk '{if ($1 > 1) print $0}'
     if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
         echo "Found duplicate header file includes. Please check the above files manually."
@@ -184,7 +186,7 @@ if [ "$DUPHEAD" = "yes" ]; then
 fi
 
 if [ "$GIT" = "yes" ]; then
-    git add -- "$@"
+    git add -- $files
     git commit --signoff -F - <<EOF
 $GITSUBJ: Clean up includes