diff -up xrdb-1.0.9/xrdb.c.nocpp xrdb-1.0.9/xrdb.c
--- xrdb-1.0.9/xrdb.c.nocpp	2011-04-05 12:01:15.000000000 -0400
+++ xrdb-1.0.9/xrdb.c	2013-10-02 10:48:30.774355639 -0400
@@ -845,23 +845,6 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
     /* initialize the includes String struct */
     addstring(&includes, "");
 
-    /* Pick the default cpp to use.  This needs to be done before
-     * we parse the command line in order to honor -nocpp which sets
-     * it back to NULL.
-     */
-    if (cpp_program == NULL) {
-	int number_of_elements
-	    = (sizeof cpp_locations) / (sizeof cpp_locations[0]);
-	int j;
-
-	for (j = 0; j < number_of_elements; j++) {
-	    if (access(cpp_locations[j], X_OK) == 0) {
-		cpp_program = cpp_locations[j];
-		break;
-	    }
-	} 
-    }
-
     /* needs to be replaced with XrmParseCommand */
 
     for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
@@ -956,6 +939,27 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	    filename = arg;
     }							/* end for */
 
+    if (cpp_program != NULL) {
+	int number_of_elements
+	    = (sizeof cpp_locations) / (sizeof cpp_locations[0]);
+	int j;
+
+	for (j = 0; j < number_of_elements; j++) {
+	    char *end, *dup;
+	    /* cut off arguments */
+	    dup = strdup(cpp_locations[j]);
+	    end = strchr(dup,' ');
+	    if (end)
+		*end = '\0';
+	    if (access(dup, X_OK) == 0) {
+		cpp_program = cpp_locations[j];
+		free(dup);
+		break;
+	    }
+	    free(dup);
+	}
+    }
+
 #ifndef WIN32
     while ((i = open("/dev/null", O_RDONLY)) < 3)
 	; /* make sure later freopen won't clobber things */