diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index c4c50ad9e37..22a1b295930 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ AS_VAR_SET_IF([SAGE_ENABLE_$pkgname], [], [AS_VAR_SET([SAGE_ENABLE_$pkgname], [y
             *:none)
                 # Issue #31163: Just an optional dummy package
                 spkg_configures="$spkg_configures
-                            AC_SUBST(SAGE_ENABLE_$pkgname, [if_installed])"
+AC_SUBST(SAGE_ENABLE_$pkgname, [if_installed])"
                 ;;
             *:*)
                 spkg_configures="$spkg_configures
@@ -98,24 +98,26 @@ $config"
 $config"
         fi
     done >> m4/sage_spkg_configures.m4
-    cat >> m4/sage_spkg_configures.m4 <<EOF
-$spkg_configures
-$spkg_configures_python
-EOF
     for pkgname in $(sage-package list); do
         eval DIR=\$path_$pkgname pkgtype=\$type_$pkgname SPKG_SOURCE=\$source_$pkgname SPKG_TREE_VAR=\$trees_$pkgname
         if test -f "$DIR/requirements.txt" -o -f "$DIR/version_requirements.txt"; then
             # A Python package
             echo "define(>>>SPKG_INSTALL_REQUIRES_${pkgname}<<<, >>>$(echo $(sage-get-system-packages install-requires ${pkgname}))<<<)dnl" >> m4/sage_spkg_versions.m4
+            INSTALL_REQUIRES_TOML=
             echo "define(>>>SPKG_INSTALL_REQUIRES_${pkgname}<<<, >>>$(echo $(sage-get-system-packages install-requires-toml ${pkgname}))<<<)dnl" >> m4/sage_spkg_versions_toml.m4
+            echo "m4_define([SPKG_INSTALL_REQUIRES_${pkgname}], [[$(echo $(sage-get-system-packages install-requires-toml ${pkgname} | sed 's/"/\\"/g'))]])dnl" >> m4/sage_spkg_configures.m4
         fi
         spkg_finalizes="$spkg_finalizes
 SAGE_SPKG_FINALIZE([$pkgname], [$pkgtype], [$SPKG_SOURCE], [$SPKG_TREE_VAR])"
     done
-    echo "$spkg_finalizes" >> m4/sage_spkg_configures.m4
     for a in m4/sage_spkg_versions.m4 m4/sage_spkg_versions_toml.m4; do
         echo 'changequote(>>>`<<<, >>>'"'"'<<<)dnl' >> $a
     done
+    cat >> m4/sage_spkg_configures.m4 <<EOF
+$spkg_configures
+$spkg_configures_python
+$spkg_finalizes
+EOF
 
     for pkgname in $(sage-package list --has-file bootstrap "$@"); do
         eval DIR=\$path_$pkgname
diff --git a/build/bin/sage-get-system-packages b/build/bin/sage-get-system-packages
index 0a90232ed6e..50089353c8a 100755
--- a/build/bin/sage-get-system-packages
+++ b/build/bin/sage-get-system-packages
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ case "$SYSTEM" in
         # Collect from src/pyproject.toml or from version_requirements.txt (falling back to requirements.txt) and output it in the format
         # needed by setup.cfg [options] version_requirements=
         SYSTEM_PACKAGES_FILE_NAMES="version_requirements.txt requirements.txt"
-        STRIP_COMMENTS="sed s/#.*//;/^[[:space:]]*$/d;"
+        # also normalizes quotes from "" to ''.
+        STRIP_COMMENTS="sed s/#.*//;/^[[:space:]]*$/d;s/\"/'/g;"
         FROM_PYPROJECT_TOML=1
         COLLECT=
         ;;
@@ -25,7 +26,8 @@ case "$SYSTEM" in
         # Collect from src/pyproject.toml or from version_requirements.txt (falling back to requirements.txt) and output it in the format
         # needed by pyproject.toml [build-system] requires=
         SYSTEM_PACKAGES_FILE_NAMES="version_requirements.txt requirements.txt"
-        STRIP_COMMENTS="sed s/#.*//;/^[[:space:]]*$/d;s/^/'/;s/$/',/;"
+        # also normalizes quotes from '' to "".
+        STRIP_COMMENTS="sed s/#.*//;/^[[:space:]]*$/d;s/'/\"/g;s/^/'/;s/$/',/;"
         FROM_PYPROJECT_TOML=1
         COLLECT=
         ;;
diff --git a/m4/sage_python_package_check.m4 b/m4/sage_python_package_check.m4
index 6465a67d7c0..315bc621a57 100644
--- a/m4/sage_python_package_check.m4
+++ b/m4/sage_python_package_check.m4
@@ -56,29 +56,17 @@ AC_DEFUN([SAGE_PYTHON_PACKAGE_CHECK], [
                                   config.venv            dnl
                                   2>&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD], [
       AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
-      dnl strip all comments from version_requirements.txt; this should leave
-      dnl only a single line containing the version specification for this
-      dnl package. Afterwards, convert all double-quotes to single quotes.
-      dnl Both work, but only single quotes are documented. However, at the
-      dnl time of writing, double quotes are more compatible with our toml
-      dnl generation in ./bootstrap. Converting them from double- to single-
-      dnl quotes on-the-fly here lets us support both (in this macro, at
-      dnl least).
-      SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC=$(sed                   \
-        -e '/^#/d'                             \
-        -e "s/\"/'/g"                          \
-        "./build/pkgs/$1/version_requirements.txt"
-      )
-      AC_MSG_CHECKING([for python package $1 ("${SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC}")])
+      dnl SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC is in the format of a toml list, but
+      dnl without surrounding brackets, of single-quoted strings,
+      dnl with any double-quotes escaped by backslash.
+      AS_VAR_SET([SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC], ["SPKG_INSTALL_REQUIRES_]$1["])
+      AC_MSG_CHECKING([for python package $1 (${SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC%,})])
 
       WITH_SAGE_PYTHONUSERBASE([dnl
-        dnl double-quote SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC because platform-specific
-        dnl dependencies like python_version<'3.11' will have single
-        dnl quotes in them. (We normalized the quotes earlier with sed.)
         AS_IF(
-          [config.venv/bin/python3 -c   dnl
-             "import pkg_resources;                                        dnl
-              pkg_resources.require(\"${SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC}\".splitlines())" dnl
+          [config.venv/bin/python3 -c dnl
+             "import pkg_resources; dnl
+              pkg_resources.require((${SAGE_PKG_VERSPEC}))" dnl
            2>&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD],
           [AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)],
           [AC_MSG_RESULT(no); sage_spkg_install_$1=yes]