diff --git a/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c b/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
index 9ca1a8d906..e2e88f621f 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
+++ b/src/test/regress/pg_regress.c
@@ -1095,3 +1095,3 @@ spawn_process(const char *cmdline)
 		cmdline2 = psprintf("exec %s", cmdline);
-		execl(shellprog, shellprog, "-c", cmdline2, (char *) NULL);
+		execlp(shellprog, shellprog, "-c", cmdline2, (char *) NULL);
 		fprintf(stderr, _("%s: could not exec \"%s\": %s\n"),