diff --git a/libexec/rbenv b/libexec/rbenv
index 0e70361d..2d475857 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv
+++ b/libexec/rbenv
@@ -12,8 +12,14 @@ if [ -n "$RBENV_DEBUG" ]; then
   set -x
 fi
 
+READLINK=$(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1)
+if [ -z "$READLINK" ]; then
+  echo "rbenv: cannot find readlink - are you missing GNU coreutils?" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 resolve_link() {
-  $(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1) "$1"
+  $READLINK "$1"
 }
 
 abs_dirname() {
diff --git a/libexec/rbenv-hooks b/libexec/rbenv-hooks
index f81e9af4..86386719 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv-hooks
+++ b/libexec/rbenv-hooks
@@ -19,8 +19,14 @@ if [ -z "$RBENV_COMMAND" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
+READLINK=$(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1)
+if [ -z "$READLINK" ]; then
+  echo "rbenv: cannot find readlink - are you missing GNU coreutils?" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 resolve_link() {
-  $(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1) $1
+  $READLINK "$1"
 }
 
 realpath() {
diff --git a/libexec/rbenv-init b/libexec/rbenv-init
index 8cbe7df0..7fb7b737 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv-init
+++ b/libexec/rbenv-init
@@ -25,8 +25,14 @@ if [ -z "$shell" ]; then
   shell="$(basename "$SHELL")"
 fi
 
+READLINK=$(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1)
+if [ -z "$READLINK" ]; then
+  echo "rbenv: cannot find readlink - are you missing GNU coreutils?" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 resolve_link() {
-  $(type -p greadlink readlink | head -1) $1
+  $READLINK "$1"
 }
 
 abs_dirname() {