diff --git a/hack/verify-golint.sh b/hack/verify-golint.sh
index 6d33f262046..3e0c579f49c 100755
--- a/hack/verify-golint.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-golint.sh
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ export IFS=$'\n'
 # as the prefix, however if we run it outside it returns the full path of the file
 # with a leading underscore. We'll need to support both scenarios for all_packages.
 all_packages=(
-  $(go list -e ./... | egrep -v "/(third_party|vendor|staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg|generated|clientset_generated)" | sed -e 's|^k8s.io/kubernetes/||' -e "s|^_${KUBE_ROOT}/\?||")
+  $(go list -e ./... | egrep -v "/(third_party|vendor|staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg|generated|clientset_generated)" | sed -e 's|^k8s.io/kubernetes/||' -e "s|^_\(${KUBE_ROOT}/\)\{0,1\}||")
 )
 failing_packages=(
   $(cat $failure_file)