diff --git a/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py b/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
index 87ae2b66199..5143ed79f00 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
@@ -176,7 +176,15 @@ class CmdLineTest(unittest.TestCase):
             path1 = "ABCDE" * 100
             path2 = "FGHIJ" * 100
             env['PYTHONPATH'] = path1 + os.pathsep + path2
-            p = _spawn_python('-S', '-c', 'import sys; print(sys.path)')
+
+            code = """
+import sys
+path = ":".join(sys.path)
+path = path.encode("ascii", "backslashreplace")
+sys.stdout.buffer.write(path)"""
+            code = code.strip().splitlines()
+            code = '; '.join(code)
+            p = _spawn_python('-S', '-c', code)
             stdout, _ = p.communicate()
             self.assertTrue(path1.encode('ascii') in stdout)
             self.assertTrue(path2.encode('ascii') in stdout)