diff --git a/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.c b/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.c
--- a/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.c
+++ b/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.c
@@ -998,8 +998,10 @@
 	bzero(buf, BUFSIZ);
 	j = sizeof(buf);
 	i = sysctl(qoid, nlen + 2, buf, &j, 0, 0);
-	if (i < 0)
+	if (i < 0) {
+		putchar('\n');
 		return (1);
+	}
 	fputs(buf, stdout);
 	return (error);
 }