diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc b/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
index de847549d7..72d365ff90 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ perhaps_suffix (const char *prog, path_conv& buf, int& err, unsigned opt)
 
   err = 0;
   debug_printf ("prog '%s'", prog);
-  buf.check (prog, PC_SYM_FOLLOW | PC_NULLEMPTY | PC_POSIX,
+  buf.check (prog, PC_SYM_FOLLOW | PC_SYM_NOFOLLOW_REP | PC_NULLEMPTY | PC_POSIX,
 	     (opt & FE_DLL) ? stat_suffixes : exe_suffixes);
 
   if (buf.isdir ())