diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e1ba8b502e..39e8063276 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ PLATFORM_CORE_LDFLAGS=
 PLATFORM_CORE_LIBS=
 
 path_remove () {
-  echo "$1" | sed 's/:/\n/g' | grep -Fxv "$2" | tr '\n' ':' | sed 's/:$/\n/'
+  echo "$1" | tr ':' '\n' | grep -Fxv "$2" | tr '\n' ':' | sed 's/:$//'
 }
 path_push_unique () {
   x="$(eval echo \$$1)"