diff --git a/generic/tests/netperf.py b/generic/tests/netperf.py
index 625d1882d4dfead4479a64ae5c11555f22f800fd..9ee7b436fa491ea3337f280c7e64f0110a7de5bb 100644
--- a/generic/tests/netperf.py
+++ b/generic/tests/netperf.py
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ def launch_client(sessions, server, server_ctl, host, clients, l, nf_args,
         """
         sum = 0
         intr = []
-        stat = ssh_cmd(server_ctl, "cat /proc/interrupts |grep %s" % name)
+        stat = ssh_cmd(server_ctl, "grep %s /proc/interrupts" % name)
         for i in stat.strip().split("\n"):
             for cpu in range(int(ncpu)):
                 sum += int(i.split()[cpu + 1])