diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 608b42288b766bd2a162b3c009fa930713cfc92b..7264e8c3b819f41e5b6753f9d3605a1adb4d8698 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -288,7 +288,8 @@ uploadInputBag:
   script:
   - ln -sfn `readlink -e ./test_data/auth/credential.json` ./credential.json
   - >
-    if [ -z "$(singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host dev.gudmap.org ls /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/input_bag/ | grep -o '/TEST$')"" ]; then
+    hatrac=`singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host dev.gudmap.org ls /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/input_bag/ | grep -o '/TEST$'` &&
+    if [ -z "${hatrac}" ]; then
       singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host dev.gudmap.org mkdir /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/input_bag/TEST
       echo /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/input_bag/TEST created
     else