diff --git a/scripts/get_maintainer.pl b/scripts/get_maintainer.pl
index 65c6acf..77f4f2e 100755
--- a/scripts/get_maintainer.pl
+++ b/scripts/get_maintainer.pl
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ foreach my $file (@ARGV) {
     }
     if ($from_filename) {
 	push(@files, $file);
-	if (-f $file && ($keywords || $file_emails)) {
+	if ($file ne "MAINTAINERS" && -f $file && ($keywords || $file_emails)) {
 	    open(my $f, '<', $file)
 		or die "$P: Can't open $file: $!\n";
 	    my $text = do { local($/) ; <$f> };