diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 5b391aa..b5ffe4c 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ conf.set_quoted('PKGSYSCONFDIR',   get_option('sysconfdir'))
 cc = meson.get_compiler('c')
 
 c_args = '''
-        -Wextra
         -Werror=undef
         -Werror=format=2
         -Wformat-security
@@ -110,8 +109,7 @@ gperf_test_format = '''
 const char * in_word_set(const char *, @0@);
 @1@
 '''
-gperf_snippet_format = 'echo foo,bar | @0@ -L ANSI-C'
-gperf_snippet = run_command('sh', '-c', gperf_snippet_format.format(gperf.path()))
+gperf_snippet = run_command('sh', '-c', 'echo foo,bar | "$1" -L ANSI-C', '_', gperf, check: true)
 gperf_test = gperf_test_format.format('size_t', gperf_snippet.stdout())
 if cc.compiles(gperf_test)
         gperf_len_type = 'size_t'