diff --git a/utils/shgit b/utils/shgit
index ef9210c..8359112 100644
--- a/utils/shgit
+++ b/utils/shgit
@@ -38,13 +38,13 @@ shgit()
 	[ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ] && status=${SHGIT_SEP}*
 
 	commits=$(git rev-list --left-right --count @{upstream}...HEAD \
-	    2>/dev/null | {
-		t=
-		IFS="	" read -r behind ahead
-		[ ${behind:-0} -gt 0 ] && t=$t"v$behind"
-		[ ${ahead:-0} -gt 0 ] && t=$t"^$ahead"
-		[ -n "$t" ] && printf "%s" "$SHGIT_SEP" "$t"
-	})
+	    2>/dev/null | tr "\t" ^)
+	if [ -n "$commits" ]; then
+		commits=v$commits
+		commits=${commits#v0}
+		commits=${commits%^0}
+		commits=${commits:+$SHGIT_SEP$commits}
+	fi
 
 	printf "%s%s%s" "$SHGIT_BEGIN" "$name$rb$status$commits" "$SHGIT_END"
 }