diff --git a/util/abuild/abuild b/util/abuild/abuild
index 03be0d412e..ef4e46b8ed 100755
--- a/util/abuild/abuild
+++ b/util/abuild/abuild
@@ -462,10 +462,26 @@ function build_config
 		return
 	fi
 
+	local required_arches
+
 	required_arches=$(grep -E "^CONFIG_ARCH_(BOOTBLOCK|R.MSTAGE|VERSTAGE)" "$TARGET/${BUILD_NAME}/config.build" | \
 			sed "s,^CONFIG_ARCH_[^_]*_\([^=]*\)=.*$,\1," |sort -u |tr 'A-Z\n\r' 'a-z  ')
-	# shellcheck disable=SC2016,SC2059
-	missing_arches=$(printf 'include .xcompile\nall: ; @echo $(foreach arch,'"$required_arches"',$(if $(filter $(arch),$(SUBARCH_SUPPORTED)),,$(arch)))' | $MAKE --no-print-directory -f -)
+
+	missing_arches="$($MAKE --no-print-directory -f - \
+		REQUIRED_ARCHES="$required_arches" <<'EOF'
+include .xcompile
+.PHONY: missing_arches
+missing_arches:
+	$(if $(XCOMPILE_COMPLETE),,$(error .xcompile is invalid.))
+	@echo $(foreach arch,$(REQUIRED_ARCHES),$(if $(filter $(arch),$(SUBARCH_SUPPORTED)),,$(arch)))
+EOF
+)"
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2181
+	if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
+		echo "Calculating missing_arches failed" >&2
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
 	if [ -n "$missing_arches" ]; then
 		printf "skipping %s because we're missing compilers for (%s)\n" "$BUILD_NAME" "$missing_arches"
 		return