diff --git a/coccinelle/empty-to-null.cocci b/coccinelle/empty-to-null.cocci
index 1cc89475a6f..82819e9e3c9 100644
--- a/coccinelle/empty-to-null.cocci
+++ b/coccinelle/empty-to-null.cocci
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 @@
-/* Avoid running this transformation on the empty_to_null function itself */
-position p : script:python() { p[0].current_element != "empty_to_null" };
+/* Avoid running this transformation on the empty_to_null macro itself.
+ * See the note in strempty.cocci to understand the weird magic below.
+*/
+position p : script:python() {
+        not (p[0].file == "src/basic/string-util.h" and p[0].current_element == "something_else")
+};
 expression s;
 @@
 
diff --git a/src/sysupdate/sysupdate-resource.c b/src/sysupdate/sysupdate-resource.c
index 04d425299d2..e1e260addcc 100644
--- a/src/sysupdate/sysupdate-resource.c
+++ b/src/sysupdate/sysupdate-resource.c
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ int resource_resolve_path(
 
                 r = stat("/run/systemd/volatile-root", &orig_root_stats);
                 if (r < 0) {
-                        if (errno == -ENOENT) /* volatile-root not found */
+                        if (errno == ENOENT) /* volatile-root not found */
                                 r = get_block_device_harder("/usr/", &d);
                         else
                                 return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to stat /run/systemd/volatile-root: %m");