diff --git a/rbutil/libtools.make b/rbutil/libtools.make
index fda9b68132..2afe4d2af0 100644
--- a/rbutil/libtools.make
+++ b/rbutil/libtools.make
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ TOP := $(dir $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
 
 # overwrite for releases
 APPVERSION ?= $(shell $(TOP)/../tools/version.sh ../)
-CFLAGS += -DVERSION=\"$(APPVERSION)\"
+CFLAGS += -DVERSION=\""$(APPVERSION)"\"
 TARGET_DIR ?= $(shell pwd)/
 
 # use POSIX/C99 printf on windows