diff --git a/tool/ifchange b/tool/ifchange
index ca2ea40644..7038615d43 100755
--- a/tool/ifchange
+++ b/tool/ifchange
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ until [ "$0" = 0 ]; do
 	    timestamp=.
 	    ;;
 	--timestamp=*)
-	    timestamp="${1#*=}" || timestamp=`expr "$1" : '[^=]*=\(.*\)'`
+	    timestamp=`expr "$1" : '[^=]*=\(.*\)'`
 	    ;;
 	*)
 	    break
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ if [ -n "${timestamp}" ]; then
     if [ x"${timestamp}" = x. ]; then
 	case "$target" in
 	    */*)
-		timestamp="${target%/*}"/.time."${target##*/}" ||
 		timestamp=`dirname "$target"`/.time.`basename "$target"`
 		;;
 	    *)