diff --git a/lib/tasks/gitlab/task_helpers.rake b/lib/tasks/gitlab/task_helpers.rake
index d36b9682850bcccadacb371c41813b1f30f6c6fc..da61c6e007f28b7296e32c513c02f3afd61e4291 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/gitlab/task_helpers.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/gitlab/task_helpers.rake
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ namespace :gitlab do
   def run(command)
     output, _ = Gitlab::Popen.popen(command)
     output
+  rescue Errno::ENOENT
+    '' # if the command does not exist, return an empty string
   end
 
   def uid_for(user_name)