diff --git a/src/init.c b/src/init.c
index e78dd4cfcd809..5f97d46a0b8e3 100644
--- a/src/init.c
+++ b/src/init.c
@@ -222,6 +222,9 @@ static void jl_close_item_atexit(uv_handle_t *handle)
 
 JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_atexit_hook(int exitcode)
 {
+    if (jl_all_tls_states == NULL)
+        return;
+
     jl_ptls_t ptls = jl_get_ptls_states();
 
     if (exitcode == 0)
diff --git a/test/cmdlineargs.jl b/test/cmdlineargs.jl
index 4d5f4ba4c7539..cda7a097c3b64 100644
--- a/test/cmdlineargs.jl
+++ b/test/cmdlineargs.jl
@@ -172,7 +172,10 @@ let exename = `$(Base.julia_cmd()) --startup-file=no`
     # --procs
     @test readchomp(`$exename -q -p 2 -e "println(nworkers())"`) == "2"
     @test !success(`$exename -p 0`)
-    @test !success(`$exename --procs=1.0`)
+    let p = run(`$exename --procs=1.0`, wait=false)
+        wait(p)
+        @test p.exitcode == 1 && p.termsignal == 0
+    end
 
     # --machine-file
     # this does not check that machine file works,