diff --git a/src/lib/Gitolite/Common.pm b/src/lib/Gitolite/Common.pm
index 947819a..638b122 100644
--- a/src/lib/Gitolite/Common.pm
+++ b/src/lib/Gitolite/Common.pm
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ sub logger_plus_stderr {
 
     sub tsh_try {
         my $cmd = shift; die "try: expects only one argument" if @_;
-        $text = `( $cmd ) 2>&1; /bin/echo -n RC=\$?`;
+        $text = `( $cmd ) 2>&1; printf RC=\$?`;
         if ( $text =~ s/RC=(\d+)$// ) {
             $rc = $1;
             trace( 3, $text );