diff --git a/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass b/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
index d49473440e..ac04a07cb5 100644
--- a/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
@@ -193,14 +193,14 @@ autotools_do_configure() {
 		else
 			CONFIGURE_AC=configure.ac
 		fi
-		if grep "^[[:space:]]*AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT" $CONFIGURE_AC >/dev/null; then
-			if grep "sed.*POTFILES" $CONFIGURE_AC >/dev/null; then
+		if grep -q "^[[:space:]]*AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT" $CONFIGURE_AC; then
+			if grep -q "sed.*POTFILES" $CONFIGURE_AC; then
 				: do nothing -- we still have an old unmodified configure.ac
 	    		else
 				bbnote Executing glib-gettextize --force --copy
 				echo "no" | glib-gettextize --force --copy
 			fi
-		elif grep "^[[:space:]]*AM_GNU_GETTEXT" $CONFIGURE_AC >/dev/null; then
+		elif grep -q "^[[:space:]]*AM_GNU_GETTEXT" $CONFIGURE_AC; then
 			# We'd call gettextize here if it wasn't so broken...
 			cp ${STAGING_DATADIR_NATIVE}/gettext/config.rpath ${AUTOTOOLS_AUXDIR}/
 			if [ -d ${S}/po/ ]; then
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ autotools_do_configure() {
 			PRUNE_M4="$PRUNE_M4 gettext.m4 iconv.m4 lib-ld.m4 lib-link.m4 lib-prefix.m4 nls.m4 po.m4 progtest.m4"
 		fi
 		mkdir -p m4
-		if grep "^[[:space:]]*[AI][CT]_PROG_INTLTOOL" $CONFIGURE_AC >/dev/null; then
+		if grep -q "^[[:space:]]*[AI][CT]_PROG_INTLTOOL" $CONFIGURE_AC; then
 			if ! echo "${DEPENDS}" | grep -q intltool-native; then
 				bbwarn "Missing DEPENDS on intltool-native"
 			fi