diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 7fa4d7c3515..ef5be1e26c2 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ fi
 
 # See if we can extract a definition of CC from the fragment.
 if [ -z "${CC}" ]; then
-  if [ -n "${host_makefile_frag}" -a -f ${host_makefile_frag} ]; then
+  if [ -n "${host_makefile_frag}" -a -f "${host_makefile_frag}" ]; then
     CC=`sed -n -e 's/CC[ 	]*=[ 	]*\(.*\)$/\1/p' < ${host_makefile_frag}`
   fi
 fi