diff --git a/completions/perl b/completions/perl
index 0938d736ae3..f4eebd4fff4 100644
--- a/completions/perl
+++ b/completions/perl
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ _comp_cmd_perldoc()
             if [[ $cur == p* ]]; then
                 _comp_compgen -a split -- "$(PERLDOC_PAGER=cat "$1" -u perl |
                     command sed -ne '/perl.*Perl overview/,/perlwin32/p' |
-                    awk '$NF=2 && $1 ~ /^perl/ { print $1 }')"
+                    awk 'NF >= 2 && $1 ~ /^perl/ { print $1 }')"
             fi
         fi
         _comp_compgen -a filedir 'p@([lm]|od)'