diff --git a/eclass/autotools.eclass b/eclass/autotools.eclass
index b8eeb55fd8f29..d6c5b7f0ec0d1 100644
--- a/eclass/autotools.eclass
+++ b/eclass/autotools.eclass
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ _at_uses_pkg() {
 		for macro ; do
 			args+=( -e "^[[:space:]]*${macro}\>" )
 		done
-		egrep -q "${args[@]}" configure.??
+		grep -E -q "${args[@]}" configure.??
 	fi
 }
 _at_uses_autoheader()  { _at_uses_pkg A{C,M}_CONFIG_HEADER{S,}; }