diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
index 393b946bbb9..91bd6c251fc 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
@@ -555,11 +555,9 @@ void QMakeEvaluator::populateDeps(
         }
 }
 
-ProStringList QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinExpand(
-        int func_t, const ProKey &func, const ProStringList &args)
+QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinExpand(
+        int func_t, const ProKey &func, const ProStringList &args, ProStringList &ret)
 {
-    ProStringList ret;
-
     traceMsg("calling built-in $$%s(%s)", dbgKey(func), dbgSepStrList(args));
 
     switch (func_t) {
@@ -1108,6 +1106,11 @@ ProStringList QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinExpand(
             if (qfile.open(stdin, QIODevice::ReadOnly)) {
                 QTextStream t(&qfile);
                 const QString &line = t.readLine();
+                if (t.atEnd()) {
+                    fputs("\n", stderr);
+                    evalError(fL1S("Unexpected EOF."));
+                    return ReturnError;
+                }
                 ret = split_value_list(QStringRef(&line));
             }
         }
@@ -1277,7 +1280,7 @@ ProStringList QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinExpand(
         break;
     }
 
-    return ret;
+    return ReturnTrue;
 }
 
 QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinConditional(
diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
index 702ec650c4d..bec43b1d4ed 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
@@ -1773,8 +1773,7 @@ QMakeEvaluator::VisitReturn QMakeEvaluator::evaluateExpandFunction(
         ProStringList args;
         if (expandVariableReferences(tokPtr, 5, &args, true) == ReturnError)
             return ReturnError;
-        *ret = evaluateBuiltinExpand(func_t, func, args);
-        return ReturnTrue;
+        return evaluateBuiltinExpand(func_t, func, args, *ret);
     }
 
     QHash<ProKey, ProFunctionDef>::ConstIterator it =
diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
index d1e734346b2..3816769792d 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.h
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ public:
     VisitReturn evaluateExpandFunction(const ProKey &function, const ushort *&tokPtr, ProStringList *ret);
     VisitReturn evaluateConditionalFunction(const ProKey &function, const ushort *&tokPtr);
 
-    ProStringList evaluateBuiltinExpand(int func_t, const ProKey &function, const ProStringList &args);
+    VisitReturn evaluateBuiltinExpand(int func_t, const ProKey &function, const ProStringList &args, ProStringList &ret);
     VisitReturn evaluateBuiltinConditional(int func_t, const ProKey &function, const ProStringList &args);
 
     VisitReturn evaluateConditional(const QStringRef &cond, const QString &where, int line = -1);