diff --git a/scram-project-build.file b/scram-project-build.file
index 5b7f1de52db..bbec7667cec 100755
--- a/scram-project-build.file
+++ b/scram-project-build.file
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ for DIR in $ELF_DIRS $DROP_SYMBOLS_DIRS; do
   # ELF binaries
   ELF_BINS=$(file * | grep ELF | cut -d':' -f1)
   if [ ! -z "$ELF_BINS" ]; then
-    if [ `echo $ELF_BINS | wc -w` -gt 1 ] ; then
+    if [ $(echo $ELF_BINS | wc -w) -gt 1 ] ; then
       dwz -m .debug/common-symbols.debug -M common-symbols.debug $ELF_BINS
     fi
     echo "$ELF_BINS" | xargs -t -n1 -P%{compiling_processes} -I% sh -c 'objcopy --compress-debug-sections --only-keep-debug % .debug/%.debug; objcopy --strip-debug --add-gnu-debuglink=.debug/%.debug %'