diff --git a/sftp-client.c b/sftp-client.c
index 87b4d142aa7..29f4c64d1f8 100644
--- a/sftp-client.c
+++ b/sftp-client.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* $OpenBSD: sftp-client.c,v 1.169 2023/03/08 04:43:12 guenther Exp $ */
+/* $OpenBSD: sftp-client.c,v 1.170 2023/03/28 07:44:32 dtucker Exp $ */
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2001-2004 Damien Miller <djm@openbsd.org>
  *
@@ -2895,6 +2895,10 @@ path_append(const char *p1, const char *p2)
 	return(ret);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Arg p must be dynamically allocated.  It will either be returned or
+ * freed and a replacement allocated.  Caller must free returned string.
+ */
 char *
 make_absolute(char *p, const char *pwd)
 {
diff --git a/sftp.c b/sftp.c
index 29081db3d43..6c5aab7a554 100644
--- a/sftp.c
+++ b/sftp.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* $OpenBSD: sftp.c,v 1.229 2023/03/12 09:41:18 dtucker Exp $ */
+/* $OpenBSD: sftp.c,v 1.230 2023/03/28 07:44:32 dtucker Exp $ */
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2001-2004 Damien Miller <djm@openbsd.org>
  *
@@ -616,15 +616,19 @@ escape_glob(const char *s)
 	return ret;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Arg p must be dynamically allocated.  make_absolute will either return it
+ * or free it and and allocate a new one.  Caller must free returned string.
+ */
 static char *
-make_absolute_pwd_glob(const char *p, const char *pwd)
+make_absolute_pwd_glob(char *p, const char *pwd)
 {
 	char *ret, *escpwd;
 
 	escpwd = escape_glob(pwd);
 	if (p == NULL)
 		return escpwd;
-	ret = make_absolute(xstrdup(p), escpwd);
+	ret = make_absolute(p, escpwd);
 	free(escpwd);
 	return ret;
 }
@@ -637,7 +641,7 @@ process_get(struct sftp_conn *conn, const char *src, const char *dst,
 	glob_t g;
 	int i, r, err = 0;
 
-	abs_src = make_absolute_pwd_glob(src, pwd);
+	abs_src = make_absolute_pwd_glob(xstrdup(src), pwd);
 	memset(&g, 0, sizeof(g));
 
 	debug3("Looking up %s", abs_src);
@@ -1997,9 +2001,7 @@ complete_match(EditLine *el, struct sftp_conn *conn, char *remote_path,
 
 	memset(&g, 0, sizeof(g));
 	if (remote != LOCAL) {
-		tmp2 = make_absolute_pwd_glob(tmp, remote_path);
-		free(tmp);
-		tmp = tmp2;
+		tmp = make_absolute_pwd_glob(tmp, remote_path);
 		remote_glob(conn, tmp, GLOB_DOOFFS|GLOB_MARK, NULL, &g);
 	} else
 		glob(tmp, GLOB_DOOFFS|GLOB_MARK, NULL, &g);