diff --git a/roles/taskotron/buildmaster-configure/templates/taskotron.master.cfg.j2 b/roles/taskotron/buildmaster-configure/templates/taskotron.master.cfg.j2
index db8e55653f..b3000d5298 100644
--- a/roles/taskotron/buildmaster-configure/templates/taskotron.master.cfg.j2
+++ b/roles/taskotron/buildmaster-configure/templates/taskotron.master.cfg.j2
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ factory.addStep(ShellCommand(command=["rm", "-f", "/var/log/taskotron/taskotron.
 
 {% if deployment_type == 'dev' %}
 # clean out /var/tmp/taskotron (see T253)
-factory.addStep(ShellCommand(command=["rm", "-rf", Interpolate("/var/tmp/taskotron/%(prop:slavename)s/*")], name="rm_tmp", descriptionDone=['Clean tmp']))
+factory.addStep(ShellCommand(command=Interpolate("rm -rf /var/tmp/taskotron/%(prop:slavename)s/*"), name="rm_tmp", descriptionDone=['Clean tmp']))
 {% endif %}
 
 # check out the source