diff --git a/bin/dotc b/bin/dotc
index aa8a9e44a241..7b90b5220425 100755
--- a/bin/dotc
+++ b/bin/dotc
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ trap onExit INT
 # If using the boot classpath, also pass an empty classpath
 # to java to suppress "." from materializing.
 classpathArgs () {
-  if [[ -n $bootstrapped ]]; then 
+  if [[ "true" == $bootstrapped ]]; then 
     checkjar $DOTTY_JAR "test:runMain dotc.build" src
     toolchain="$DOTTY_JAR:$SCALA_LIBRARY_JAR:$SCALA_REFLECT_JAR:$SCALA_COMPILER_JAR:$JLINE_JAR"
   else
diff --git a/test/dotc/build.scala b/test/dotc/build.scala
index cb5f7ab95fd9..9f47796c3fe2 100644
--- a/test/dotc/build.scala
+++ b/test/dotc/build.scala
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ object build extends tests {
 }
 
   def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
+    println("------------  Building dotty  ------------")
     deleteFilesInFolder(new File(defaultOutputDir)) // clear previous output
     dotty // build output dir
     val p = Runtime.getRuntime.exec(Array("jar", "cf", "dotty.jar", "-C", "out", "."))