diff --git a/src/test/meson.build b/src/test/meson.build
index 6179607a439..10570825652 100644
--- a/src/test/meson.build
+++ b/src/test/meson.build
@@ -11,12 +11,11 @@ test_hashmap_ordered_c = custom_target(
 
 test_include_dir = include_directories('.')
 
-path = run_command('sh', ['-c', 'echo "$PATH"']).stdout()
+path = run_command('sh', ['-c', 'echo "$PATH"']).stdout().strip()
 test_env = environment()
 test_env.set('SYSTEMD_KBD_MODEL_MAP', kbd_model_map)
 test_env.set('SYSTEMD_LANGUAGE_FALLBACK_MAP', language_fallback_map)
-test_env.set('PATH', path)
-test_env.prepend('PATH', meson.build_root())
+test_env.set('PATH', '@0@:@1@'.format(meson.build_root(), path))
 
 ############################################################