diff --git a/functions.sh b/functions.sh
index 0aa16a8..0c0bf76 100644
--- a/functions.sh
+++ b/functions.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ function fileMTime {
 # arg1: file
 function fileNumLines {
 	if [ ! -f $1 ] ; then echo -ne "0;" ; return 0 ; fi
-	wc -l $1 | awk '{print $1}'
+	n=$(wc -l $1 | awk '{print $1}')
+	echo -ne $n;
 }