diff --git a/config/buildSettings.mk b/config/buildSettings.mk
index 0e28260d0ced165544ccb95596e53256adedb074..454e54540a8c8a67a480ae8c0f9ff0ce601d64e6 100644
--- a/config/buildSettings.mk
+++ b/config/buildSettings.mk
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@
 # get system type (Darwin, Linux)
 SYSTYPE := $(shell uname -s)
 
-# For string substitution
-COMMA   := ,
-
 #####################################################################
 #
 # Standard commands
@@ -92,6 +89,7 @@ ARCHNVCCLDFLAGS =
 # shared libs located in the same dir will
 # take precedence over libs of the same
 # name in $FSLDIR/lib/).
+COMMA    := ,
 _LDFLAGS := $(patsubst -Wl${COMMA}-rpath%,,${LDFLAGS})
 LDFLAGS   = ${_LDFLAGS}