diff --git a/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go b/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
index c9ab72b6df..8cbef220ac 100644
--- a/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
+++ b/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
@@ -305,7 +305,8 @@ func exportChain(ctx *cli.Context) error {
 
 func copyDb(ctx *cli.Context) error {
 	// Ensure we have a source chain directory to copy
-	if len(ctx.Args()) != 1 {
+	dbPath := ctx.Args().First()
+	if len(dbPath) == 0 {
 		utils.Fatalf("Source chaindata directory path argument missing")
 	}
 	// Initialize a new chain for the running node to sync into
@@ -316,7 +317,7 @@ func copyDb(ctx *cli.Context) error {
 	dl := downloader.New(syncmode, chainDb, new(event.TypeMux), chain, nil, nil)
 
 	// Create a source peer to satisfy downloader requests from
-	db, err := ethdb.NewLDBDatabase(ctx.Args().First(), ctx.GlobalInt(utils.CacheFlag.Name), 256)
+	db, err := ethdb.NewLDBDatabase(dbPath, ctx.GlobalInt(utils.CacheFlag.Name), 256)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}