diff --git a/src/nvim/message.c b/src/nvim/message.c
index cf7922c978..46062fd8e6 100644
--- a/src/nvim/message.c
+++ b/src/nvim/message.c
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ void reset_last_sourcing(void)
 /// @return  true if "SOURCING_NAME" differs from "last_sourcing_name".
 static bool other_sourcing_name(void)
 {
-  if (SOURCING_NAME != NULL) {
+  if (HAVE_SOURCING_INFO && SOURCING_NAME != NULL) {
     if (last_sourcing_name != NULL) {
       return strcmp(SOURCING_NAME, last_sourcing_name) != 0;
     }
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ static bool other_sourcing_name(void)
 static char *get_emsg_source(void)
   FUNC_ATTR_MALLOC FUNC_ATTR_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT
 {
-  if (SOURCING_NAME != NULL && other_sourcing_name()) {
+  if (HAVE_SOURCING_INFO && SOURCING_NAME != NULL && other_sourcing_name()) {
     char *sname = estack_sfile(ESTACK_NONE);
     char *tofree = sname;
 
diff --git a/src/nvim/runtime.h b/src/nvim/runtime.h
index b3461a8743..43cdbd20dd 100644
--- a/src/nvim/runtime.h
+++ b/src/nvim/runtime.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 /// Stack of execution contexts.  Each entry is an estack_T.
 /// Current context is at ga_len - 1.
 extern garray_T exestack;
+#define HAVE_SOURCING_INFO  (exestack.ga_data != NULL && exestack.ga_len > 0)
 /// name of error message source
 #define SOURCING_NAME (((estack_T *)exestack.ga_data)[exestack.ga_len - 1].es_name)
 /// line number in the message source or zero