diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index dd0f9b590ff8957275745d1b707d3b14eb833014..0f37f1a9e64852f432b1987df923b325700557c4 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ build:
   before_script:
     - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -qq update
     - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -qq install wget patch make gcc gfortran flex bison texlive autoconf autotools-dev
-    - [ -f ./version ] && export VERSION=$(cat ./version)
+    - "[ -f ./version ] && export VERSION=$(cat ./version)"
   script:
     - aclocal
     - autoconf