diff --git a/make/autoconf/basic.m4 b/make/autoconf/basic.m4
index 02c477f4c9f..af963359583 100644
--- a/make/autoconf/basic.m4
+++ b/make/autoconf/basic.m4
@@ -479,7 +479,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([BASIC_CHECK_DIR_ON_LOCAL_DISK],
     # df on AIX does not understand -l. On modern AIXes it understands "-T local" which
     # is the same. On older AIXes we just continue to live with a "not local build" warning.
     if test "x$OPENJDK_TARGET_OS" = xaix; then
-      if "$DF -T local > /dev/null 2>&1"; then
+      if $DF -T local > /dev/null 2>&1; then
         DF_LOCAL_ONLY_OPTION='-T local'
       else # AIX may use GNU-utils instead
         DF_LOCAL_ONLY_OPTION='-l'