diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/relocate.py b/lib/spack/spack/relocate.py
index 7a364347367..e7c85fa4d90 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/relocate.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/relocate.py
@@ -447,7 +447,7 @@ def replace(match):
         data = f.read()
         f.seek(0)
         original_data_len = len(data)
-        pat = re.compile(old_dir.encode('utf-8') + b'([^\0]*?)\0')
+        pat = re.compile(old_dir.encode('utf-8'))
         if not pat.search(data):
             return
         ndata = pat.sub(replace, data)