diff --git a/t/t8002-blame.sh b/t/t8002-blame.sh
index 1ad039e123..e98993276a 100755
--- a/t/t8002-blame.sh
+++ b/t/t8002-blame.sh
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ test_expect_success 'blame --abbrev -b truncates the blank boundary' '
 	# Note that `--abbrev=` always gets incremented by 1, which is why we
 	# expect 11 leading spaces and not 10.
 	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
-	$(printf "%0.s " $(test_seq 11)) (<author@example.com> 2005-04-07 15:45:13 -0700 1) abbrev
+	$(printf "%11s" "") (<author@example.com> 2005-04-07 15:45:13 -0700 1) abbrev
 	EOF
 	git blame -b --abbrev=10 ^HEAD -- abbrev.t >actual &&
 	test_cmp expect actual
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ test_expect_success 'blame --abbrev -b truncates the blank boundary' '
 
 test_expect_success 'blame with excessive --abbrev and -b culls to hash length' '
 	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
-	$(printf "%0.s " $(test_seq $hexsz)) (<author@example.com> 2005-04-07 15:45:13 -0700 1) abbrev
+	$(printf "%${hexsz}s" "") (<author@example.com> 2005-04-07 15:45:13 -0700 1) abbrev
 	EOF
 	git blame -b --abbrev=9000 ^HEAD -- abbrev.t >actual &&
 	test_cmp expect actual