diff --git a/src/shared/specifier.c b/src/shared/specifier.c
index 6839d1892d..69fefc8d00 100644
--- a/src/shared/specifier.c
+++ b/src/shared/specifier.c
@@ -101,10 +101,11 @@ int specifier_printf(const char *text, const Specifier table[], void *userdata,
 
                                         ret = n;
                                         t = n + j + k;
-                                } else if (strchr(POSSIBLE_SPECIFIERS, *f))
+                                } else if (strchr(POSSIBLE_SPECIFIERS, *f)) {
                                         /* Oops, an unknown specifier. */
+                                        free(ret);
                                         return -EBADSLT;
-                                else {
+                                } else {
                                         *(t++) = '%';
                                         *(t++) = *f;
                                 }
diff --git a/src/test/test-systemd-tmpfiles.py b/src/test/test-systemd-tmpfiles.py
index 309cee23e6..7e563551cd 100755
--- a/src/test/test-systemd-tmpfiles.py
+++ b/src/test/test-systemd-tmpfiles.py
@@ -28,12 +28,12 @@ try:
 except AttributeError:
     sys.exit(EXIT_TEST_SKIP)
 
-exe = sys.argv[1]
+exe_with_args = sys.argv[1:]
 
 def test_line(line, *, user, returncode=EX_DATAERR, extra={}):
     args = ['--user'] if user else []
-    print('Running {} {} on {!r}'.format(exe, ' '.join(args), line))
-    c = subprocess.run([exe, '--create', '-'] + args,
+    print('Running {} on {!r}'.format(' '.join(exe_with_args + args), line))
+    c = subprocess.run(exe_with_args + ['--create', '-'] + args,
                        input=line, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=True,
                        **extra)
     assert c.returncode == returncode, c