diff --git a/cmake/build-pofiles.cmake b/cmake/build-pofiles.cmake
--- a/cmake/build-pofiles.cmake
+++ b/cmake/build-pofiles.cmake
@@ -30,23 +30,22 @@
 include(ProcessorCount)
 ProcessorCount(numberOfProcesses)
 
-set(i 0)
-set(commands)
-
-function(_processCommands)
-    if(NOT commands)
+function(_processCommands cmds)
+    if(NOT cmds)
         return()
     endif()
 
     execute_process(
-        ${commands}
+        ${cmds}
         RESULT_VARIABLE code
     )
     if(code)
         message(FATAL_ERROR "failed generating ${PO_DIR}")
     endif()
 endfunction()
 
+set(i 0)
+set(commands "")
 foreach(pofile IN LISTS pofiles)
     get_filename_component(name ${pofile} NAME)
     # Regex the basename, cmake only allows stripping the longest extension, we
@@ -60,9 +59,10 @@
     list(APPEND commands COMMAND ${GETTEXT_MSGFMT_EXECUTABLE} -o ${dest}/${name}.mo ${PO_DIR}/${pofile})
     math(EXPR i "${i}+1")
     if(i EQUAL ${numberOfProcesses})
-        _processCommands()
+        _processCommands("${commands}")
         set(i 0)
+        set(commands "")
     endif()
 endforeach()
 
-_processCommands()
+_processCommands("${commands}")