diff --git a/src/libutil/linux/cgroup.cc b/src/libutil/linux/cgroup.cc
index 890797c91..e8e2fdfc7 100644
--- a/src/libutil/linux/cgroup.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/linux/cgroup.cc
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ static CgroupStats destroyCgroup(const std::filesystem::path & cgroup, bool retu
     }
 
     if (rmdir(cgroup.c_str()) == -1)
-        throw SysError("deleting cgroup '%s'", cgroup);
+        throw SysError("deleting cgroup %s", cgroup);
 
     return stats;
 }