diff --git a/src/basic/hostname-util.c b/src/basic/hostname-util.c
index 3cd2f2c8721..5a7ee87a20c 100644
--- a/src/basic/hostname-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/hostname-util.c
@@ -150,6 +150,8 @@ char* hostname_cleanup(char *s) {
 
         assert(s);
 
+        strshorten(s, HOST_NAME_MAX);
+
         for (p = s, d = s, dot = true; *p; p++) {
                 if (*p == '.') {
                         if (dot)
@@ -169,8 +171,6 @@ char* hostname_cleanup(char *s) {
         else
                 *d = 0;
 
-        strshorten(s, HOST_NAME_MAX);
-
         return s;
 }