diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 06fdc8e..b397556 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -80,8 +80,8 @@
 
 # build a dummy Makefile if we are not building in the source tree;
 # we use inodes to avoid issues with symbolic links
-inode_src=`ls -id $abs_ft2_dir | sed 's/ .*//'`
-inode_dst=`ls -id $abs_curr_dir | sed 's/ .*//'`
+inode_src=`ls -id $abs_ft2_dir | awk '{print $1}'`
+inode_dst=`ls -id $abs_curr_dir | awk '{print $1}'`
 
 if test $inode_src -ne $inode_dst; then
   if test ! -d reference; then