diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/relocate_text.py b/lib/spack/spack/relocate_text.py
index f7f33b26809..0195a13795e 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/relocate_text.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/relocate_text.py
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ def _apply_to_file(self, f):
         # but it's nasty to deal with matches across boundaries, so let's stick to
         # something simple.
 
-        modified = True
+        modified = False
 
         for match in self.regex.finditer(f.read()):
             # The matching prefix (old) and its replacement (new)