diff --git a/parser/Makefile b/parser/Makefile
index e61165d10..57a699d1c 100644
--- a/parser/Makefile
+++ b/parser/Makefile
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ MANPAGES=apparmor.d.5 apparmor.7 apparmor_parser.8 aa-teardown.8 apparmor_xattrs
 # parse.error=verbose supported from 3.0 so just test on that
 # TODO move to autoconf
 BISON_MAJOR:=$(shell bison --version |  awk '/^bison/ { print ($$NF) }'  | awk -F. '{print $$1 }')
-USE_PARSE_ERROR:=$(shell test ${BISON_MAJOR} -ge 3 && echo true)
+USE_PARSE_ERROR:=$(shell test "${BISON_MAJOR}" -ge 3 && echo true)
 
 YACC	:= bison
 YFLAGS	:= -d