diff --git a/run-tests.php b/run-tests.php
index 5587c6c0aeb17..3e00e79225387 100755
--- a/run-tests.php
+++ b/run-tests.php
@@ -2872,8 +2872,8 @@ function expectf_to_regex(?string $wanted): string
         '%e' => preg_quote(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, '/'),
         '%s' => '[^\r\n]+',
         '%S' => '[^\r\n]*',
-        '%a' => '.+',
-        '%A' => '.*',
+        '%a' => '.+?',
+        '%A' => '.*?',
         '%w' => '\s*',
         '%i' => '[+-]?\d+',
         '%d' => '\d+',