diff --git a/tests/support/util.tcl b/tests/support/util.tcl
index 040a7f7d9..0807ebe45 100644
--- a/tests/support/util.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/util.tcl
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ proc wait_done_loading r {
 
 # count current log lines in server's stdout
 proc count_log_lines {srv_idx} {
-    set _ [exec wc -l < [srv $srv_idx stdout]]
+    set _ [string trim [exec wc -l < [srv $srv_idx stdout]]]
 }
 
 # returns the number of times a line with that pattern appears in a file
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ proc count_message_lines {file pattern} {
     set res 0
     # exec fails when grep exists with status other than 0 (when the patter wasn't found)
     catch {
-        set res [exec grep $pattern $file 2> /dev/null | wc -l]
+        set res [string trim [exec grep $pattern $file 2> /dev/null | wc -l]]
     }
     return $res
 }