diff --git a/guix/build/utils.scm b/guix/build/utils.scm
index b8be73ead4..f9698773c3 100644
--- a/guix/build/utils.scm
+++ b/guix/build/utils.scm
@@ -1295,7 +1295,8 @@ not supported."
                                              (car cl)
                                              (cons (car cl)
                                                    (append
-                                                    ',(string-split args #\space)
+                                                    ',(string-tokenize args
+                                                                       char-set:graphic)
                                                     cl))))))
                    (template (string-append prog ".XXXXXX"))
                    (out      (mkstemp! template))