diff --git a/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh b/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
index e327ee40a6df..71988e526369 100755
--- a/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
+++ b/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
@@ -222,8 +222,8 @@ clean_dep   lib/libc        statfs        c
 # 20240308  e6ffc7669a56    Remove pointless MD syscall(2)
 # 20240308  0ee0ae237324    Remove pointless MD syscall(2)
 # 20240308  7b3836c28188    Remove pointless MD syscall(2)
-if [ ${MACHINE} != i386 -a -f "$OBJTOP"/lib/libsys/.depend.syscall.o && \
-    grep -eq 'libsys/[^ /]*/syscall.S' "$OBJTOP"/lib/libsys/.depend.syscall.*; then
+if [ ${MACHINE} != i386 -a -f "$OBJTOP"/lib/libsys/.depend.syscall.o ] && \
+    grep -q -e 'libsys/[^ /]*/syscall.S' "$OBJTOP"/lib/libsys/.depend.syscall.*; then
 	echo "Removing stale <arch>/syscall.S depends"
 	clean_dep   lib/libsys  syscall S
 	clean_dep   lib/libc    syscall S