diff -up octave-4.4.1/libinterp/corefcn/input.cc.crash octave-4.4.1/libinterp/corefcn/input.cc
--- octave-4.4.1/libinterp/corefcn/input.cc.crash	2018-11-11 17:27:39.588037444 -0700
+++ octave-4.4.1/libinterp/corefcn/input.cc	2018-11-11 17:30:42.344208272 -0700
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ namespace octave
 
         octave_diary << retval;
 
-        if (retval.back () != '\n')
+        if (!retval.empty () && retval.back () != '\n')
           octave_diary << "\n";
       }
     else