diff --git a/maybe-make-man b/maybe-make-man
index c7af73934..b751ebc53 100755
--- a/maybe-make-man
+++ b/maybe-make-man
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ if [ ! -f "$flagfile" ]; then
     if "$srcdir/md-convert" --test "$srcdir/rsync-ssl.1.md" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
 	touch $flagfile
     else
-	outname=`echo "$inname" | sed 's/\.md$//'`
+	outname=`basename "$inname" .md`
 	if [ -f "$outname" ]; then
 	    exit 0
 	elif [ -f "$srcdir/$outname" ]; then