diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ee0deb4f8519ec6b897dd406488b4bacf8afec87..785f4186dea3deac2ae768331ce119565a1c8dad 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ install:
   - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]] && test -z "$PLUMED_MACPORTS" ; then brew update > /dev/null ; fi
   - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get update -qq ; fi
 # install some package - these are fast, we install them anyway
-  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get install -y libmatheval-dev libfftw3-dev gsl-bin libgsl0-dev gawk ; fi
+  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get install -y libmatheval-dev libfftw3-dev gsl-bin libgsl0-dev ; fi
   - if test "$PLUMED_CXX" ; then ./.travis/install.xdrfile ; fi
 # cppcheck:
 # I use 1.71 since 1.72 seems to report a lot of false positive
diff --git a/src/maketools/plumedcheck b/src/maketools/plumedcheck
index 1ed3c9fcf22d6cc3aaae76df1ac31c74caf2e511..4e02f6054082c7e34409cd46a7e1904a0316001e 100755
--- a/src/maketools/plumedcheck
+++ b/src/maketools/plumedcheck
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! /usr/bin/env gawk -E
+#! /usr/bin/env gawk -f
 # needs gawk
 
 # print usage