diff --git a/m4macros/gtk-2.0.m4 b/m4macros/gtk-2.0.m4
index 3deba01be7..19f13ae7db 100644
--- a/m4macros/gtk-2.0.m4
+++ b/m4macros/gtk-2.0.m4
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ main ()
   int major, minor, micro;
   char *tmp_version;
 
-  system ("touch conf.gtktest");
+  fclose (fopen ("conf.gtktest", "w");
 
   /* HP/UX 9 (%@#!) writes to sscanf strings */
   tmp_version = g_strdup("$min_gtk_version");