diff --git a/src/code/run-program.lisp b/src/code/run-program.lisp
index 9382763720f0dd4efe0bd748435c6699872a4b1f..cc7d506572beeb4f1db93577353197996a3aeada 100644
--- a/src/code/run-program.lisp
+++ b/src/code/run-program.lisp
@@ -567,7 +567,8 @@
 					env))
 			(let ((child-pid
 			       (without-gcing
-				(spawn program argv envp pty-name
+				(spawn (unix::unix-namestring program)
+				       argv envp pty-name
 				       stdin stdout stderr))))
 			  (when (< child-pid 0)
 			    (error (intl:gettext "Could not fork child process: ~A")