diff --git a/common.pri b/common.pri
index f3b70cacb..96e2d3ac9 100644
--- a/common.pri
+++ b/common.pri
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ defineTest(copyToDestdir) {
 
     for(FILE, files) {
         unix{
-            QMAKE_POST_LINK += ln -s -f $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
+            QMAKE_PRE_LINK += ln -s -f $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)) & $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
         } else {
             !exists($$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)) {
                 # Replace slashes in paths with backslashes for Windows
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ defineTest(copyToDestdir) {
                     FILE ~= s,/,\\,g
                     DDIR ~= s,/,\\,g
                 }
-                QMAKE_POST_LINK += $$VCOPY $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
+                QMAKE_PRE_LINK += $$VCOPY $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
             }
 
             QMAKE_CLEAN += $$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)
@@ -110,14 +110,14 @@ defineTest(forceCopyToDestdir) {
 
     for(FILE, files) {
         unix{
-            QMAKE_POST_LINK += ln -s -f $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
+            QMAKE_PRE_LINK += ln -s -f $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)) & $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
         } else {
             # Replace slashes in paths with backslashes for Windows
             win32{
                 FILE ~= s,/,\\,g
                 DDIR ~= s,/,\\,g
             }
-            QMAKE_POST_LINK += $$VCOPY $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
+            QMAKE_PRE_LINK += $$VCOPY $$quote($$FILE) $$quote($$DDIR) $$escape_expand(\\n\\t)
             QMAKE_CLEAN += $$DDIR/$$basename(FILE)
         }
     }