diff --git a/client/operation.go b/client/operation.go
index 137ad9c..94dd5dc 100644
--- a/client/operation.go
+++ b/client/operation.go
@@ -168,6 +168,9 @@ func prepareProcessLaunch(req *shared.StartProcessRequest) *procmeta {
 	re := regexp.MustCompile(`[^\s"']+|"([^"]*)"|'([^']*)`)
 	args := re.FindAllString(req.Args, -1)
 
+	if len(args) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
 	verpath := path.Join(req.Name, req.Version)
 	fi, err := os.Stat(verpath)
 
@@ -315,6 +318,8 @@ func (hc *houstonClient) launch(meta *procmeta) error {
 	return err
 }
 
+var errPrepareprocessLaunchFailed = errors.New("prepareProcessLaunch failed")
+
 func (hc *houstonClient) startChildProcess(req *shared.StartProcessRequest) error {
 	logger.Println("startChildProcess :", *req)
 	if req.Version == "latest" {
@@ -328,6 +333,9 @@ func (hc *houstonClient) startChildProcess(req *shared.StartProcessRequest) erro
 	}
 
 	meta := prepareProcessLaunch(req)
+	if meta == nil {
+		return errPrepareprocessLaunchFailed
+	}
 	if err := hc.launch(meta); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}