diff --git a/prune-registry.sh b/prune-registry.sh
index 2821973..bc67aaf 100755
--- a/prune-registry.sh
+++ b/prune-registry.sh
@@ -37,8 +37,10 @@ done
 declare -A keep=()
 for d in "${DISTROS[@]}"; do
   keep["${d}"]=1
+  # A distro that has no versioned tags yet is fine; don't let grep's non-zero
+  # exit status abort the script under set -e/pipefail.
   newest="$(grep -E "^${d}\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$" <<< "${versions}" \
-    | sort -t. -k2,2n -k3,3n | tail -1)"
+    | sort -t. -k2,2n -k3,3n | tail -1 || true)"
   [[ -n "${newest}" ]] && keep["${newest}"]=1
 done