diff --git a/Shorewall/compiler b/Shorewall/compiler
index 58a6c8950..69354713c 100755
--- a/Shorewall/compiler
+++ b/Shorewall/compiler
@@ -4774,7 +4774,7 @@ __EOF__
 mycat() 
 {
     if [ -n "$HAVEAWK" ]; then
-	awk 'BEGIN {blnk=0;}; /^\s*$/ {blnk=1; next; }; { while (/^\t*        /) sub(/        /, "\t"   ); if (blnk == 1 ) { print ""; blnk=0; }; print; }' $*
+	awk 'BEGIN {blnk=0;}; /^[[:space:]]*$/ {blnk=1; next; }; { while (/^\t*        /) sub(/        /, "\t"   ); if (blnk == 1 ) { print ""; blnk=0; }; print; }' $*
     else
 	cat $*
     fi