diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 5f94183bdd1..46b235351c6 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -5686,4 +5686,6 @@
 	  From Carvalho de Assis. (2013-9-30).
 	* net/net_sendfile:  The high performance sendfile logic is
 	  now functional.  From Max Holtzberg (2013-9-30).
+	* tools/define.sh:  'cut' long because as it once did.  Script
+	  adapted to observed behavior (2013-9-30).
 
diff --git a/tools/define.sh b/tools/define.sh
index dc982cc648e..ae237411835 100755
--- a/tools/define.sh
+++ b/tools/define.sh
@@ -170,9 +170,13 @@ unset response
 for vardef in $varlist; do
 
 	varname=`echo $vardef | cut -d'=' -f1`
-	varvalue=`echo $vardef | cut -d'=' -f2`
+	if [ "X$varname" != "X$vardef" ]; then
+		varvalue=`echo $vardef | cut -d'=' -f2`
+	else
+		unset varvalue
+	fi
 
-    # Handle the output depending on if there is a value for the variable or not
+	# Handle the output depending on if there is a value for the variable or not
 
 	if [ -z "$varvalue" ]; then