diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0d3b6ba74..9391f986e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@
   - Lens changes/additions
     * Dnsmasq: Parse the structure of the 'address' and 'server' options
                (incompatible change) (Kaarle Ritvanen)
+    * Shellvars: make insertion at the beginning of a file that starts with
+                 blank lines work; the new lens will remove blank lines
+                 from the beginning of a file as soon as lines are added to
+                 or removed from it (GH issue #202)
     * Sudoers: allow '+' in user/groupnames (Andreas Grüninger)
     * Sysconfig: handle leading whitespace at beginning of a line, RHBZ#761246
 
diff --git a/lenses/shellvars.aug b/lenses/shellvars.aug
index 26c1b3b76..ce2348f19 100644
--- a/lenses/shellvars.aug
+++ b/lenses/shellvars.aug
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ About: Lens Usage
 module Shellvars =
   autoload xfm
 
+  (* Delete a blank line, rather than mapping it *)
+  let del_empty = del (Util.empty_generic_re . "\n") "\n"
+
   let empty   = Util.empty
   let empty_part_re = Util.empty_generic_re . /\n+/
   let eol = del (/[ \t]+|[ \t]*[;\n]/ . empty_part_re*) "\n"
@@ -186,9 +189,9 @@ module Shellvars =
       | case entry entry_noeol
       | function entry
 
-  let lns_norec = empty* . (comment | entry_eol) *
+  let lns_norec = del_empty* . (comment | entry_eol) *
 
-  let lns = empty* . (comment | entry_eol | rec_entry) *
+  let lns = del_empty* . (comment | entry_eol | rec_entry) *
 
   let sc_incl (n:string) = (incl ("/etc/sysconfig/" . n))
   let sc_excl (n:string) = (excl ("/etc/sysconfig/" . n))
diff --git a/lenses/tests/test_shellvars.aug b/lenses/tests/test_shellvars.aug
index f49efa784..c785a3cc3 100644
--- a/lenses/tests/test_shellvars.aug
+++ b/lenses/tests/test_shellvars.aug
@@ -406,7 +406,6 @@ esac\n" =
 
   (* Empty comment before entries *)
   test Shellvars.lns get "# \nfoo=bar\n" =
-  { }
   { "foo" = "bar" }
 
   (* Empty comment after entries *)
@@ -508,6 +507,31 @@ fi\n" =
     { "MALLOC_PERTURB_" = "$(($RANDOM % 255 + 1))"
       { "export" } }
 
+  (*
+   * Github issue 202
+   *)
+  let starts_with_blank = "\n  \nVAR=value\n"
+
+  test lns get starts_with_blank = { "VAR" = "value" }
+
+  (* It is now possible to insert at the beginning of a file
+   * that starts with blank lines *)
+  test lns put starts_with_blank after
+    insb "#comment" "/*[1]";
+    set "/#comment[1]" "a comment" =
+    " # a comment\nVAR=value\n"
+
+  (* Modifications of the file lose the blank lines though *)
+  test lns put starts_with_blank after
+    set "/VAR2" "abc" = "VAR=value\nVAR2=abc\n"
+
+  test lns put starts_with_blank after
+    rm "/VAR";
+    set "/VAR2" "abc" = "VAR2=abc\n"
+
+  test lns put starts_with_blank after
+    rm "/VAR"         = ""
+
 (* Local Variables: *)
 (* mode: caml       *)
 (* End:             *)