diff --git a/test/functional/tools/version_command_plain.xml b/test/functional/tools/version_command_plain.xml
index 1ca1b7085fd..b2ffc3e07ef 100644
--- a/test/functional/tools/version_command_plain.xml
+++ b/test/functional/tools/version_command_plain.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <tool id="version_command_plain" name="version_command_plain" version="1.0.0">
     <version_command><![CDATA[
-VERSION="4.0.0" echo "$VERSION"
+VERSION="4.0.0"; echo "$VERSION"
     ]]></version_command>
     <command><![CDATA[
 cp '$input' '$output'