diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-07-07-02-18-57.bpo-29854.J8wKb_.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-07-07-02-18-57.bpo-29854.J8wKb_.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..5c439087dcb344f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-07-07-02-18-57.bpo-29854.J8wKb_.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix segfault in readline when using readline's history-size option.  Patch
+by Nir Soffer.
diff --git a/Modules/readline.c b/Modules/readline.c
index ad5903cfb51a543..1e10dd708b99c03 100644
--- a/Modules/readline.c
+++ b/Modules/readline.c
@@ -1161,15 +1161,17 @@ call_readline(FILE *sys_stdin, FILE *sys_stdout, char *prompt)
     if (n > 0) {
         const char *line;
         int length = _py_get_history_length();
-        if (length > 0)
+        if (length > 0) {
+            HIST_ENTRY *hist_ent;
 #ifdef __APPLE__
             if (using_libedit_emulation) {
                 /* handle older 0-based or newer 1-based indexing */
-                line = history_get(length + libedit_history_start - 1)->line;
+                hist_ent = history_get(length + libedit_history_start - 1);
             } else
 #endif /* __APPLE__ */
-            line = history_get(length)->line;
-        else
+                hist_ent = history_get(length);
+            line = hist_ent ? hist_ent->line : "";
+        } else
             line = "";
         if (strcmp(p, line))
             add_history(p);