diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 0aadcfa74b5e09373784ee41691a4ee60fb2feca..dd615e5991a6ede14021f03d1b8e8ec3f1003738 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ IF(Mercurial_FOUND)
   ELSE(OTB_WC_STATUS)
     MESSAGE(STATUS "No files modified locally")
   ENDIF(OTB_WC_STATUS)
-  STRING(REGEX REPLACE "\n" ";" OTB_WC_STATUS ${OTB_WC_STATUS})
+  STRING(REGEX REPLACE "\n" ";" OTB_WC_STATUS "${OTB_WC_STATUS}")
   SET(OTB_WC_STATUS ${OTB_WC_STATUS} CACHE STRING "Repository status" FORCE)
 ENDIF(Mercurial_FOUND)