diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index ab01628897..8c5b9135c6 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ deps = bashate
 whitelist_externals = bash
 # tox improperly interprets # and {1} in regex, so match on [[:punct:]]+
 commands =
-    bash -c "files=`egrep -rlI --exclude-dir .git '^[[:punct:]]+!/(bin/|/usr/bin/env )(ba)?sh' .` && bashate $files"
+    bash -c "files=`egrep -rlI --exclude-dir .git --exclude-dir .tox '^[[:punct:]]+!/(bin/|/usr/bin/env )(ba)?sh' .` && bashate $files"
 
 [testenv:setupenv]
 whitelist_externals = bash