diff --git a/Makefile-std b/Makefile-std
index 7ac6fa26..dd30d680 100644
--- a/Makefile-std
+++ b/Makefile-std
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ install-data-hook:
 	    file=$(DESTDIR)/$$i                     ;\
 	    for var in $(REPLACE_VARS)	;\
 	    do	\
-	        perl -p -i -e "s|^$$var\s*=.*|$$var=\"$${!var}\"|"  $$file;\
+	        var="$$var" perl -p -i -e 's|^\Q$$ENV{var}\E\s*=.*|$$ENV{var}="$$ENV{$$ENV{var}}"|'  $$file;\
 	    done	;\
 	done
 
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ install-exec-hook:
 	    file=$(DESTDIR)/$$i                     ;\
 	    for var in $(REPLACE_VARS)	;\
 	    do	\
-	        perl -p -i -e "s|^$$var\s*=.*|$$var=\"$${!var}\"|"  $$file;\
+	        var="$$var" perl -p -i -e 's|^\Q$$ENV{var}\E\s*=.*|$$ENV{var}="$$ENV{$$ENV{var}}"|'  $$file;\
 	    done	;\
 	done
 
diff --git a/src/python/Makefile.am b/src/python/Makefile.am
index 693b6d9d..6aca9688 100644
--- a/src/python/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/python/Makefile.am
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ src/python/_vars.py: src/python/libsmbios_c/_vars.py  configure Makefile config.
 	cp $< $@
 	for var in $(REPLACE_VARS)	;\
 	do	\
-		perl -p -i -e "s|^$$var\s*=.*|$$var=\"$${!var}\"|"  $@;\
+		var="$$var" perl -p -i -e 's|^\Q$$ENV{var}\E\s*=.*|$$ENV{var}="$$ENV{$$ENV{var}}"|'  $@;\
 	done