diff --git a/libguile/guile-snarf.in b/libguile/guile-snarf.in
index 043b3ed0d..a1aeba577 100644
--- a/libguile/guile-snarf.in
+++ b/libguile/guile-snarf.in
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ modern_snarf ()                         # writes stdout
     ## empty file.
     echo "/* cpp arguments: $@ */" ;
     ${cpp} -DSCM_MAGIC_SNARF_INITS -DSCM_MAGIC_SNARFER "$@" > ${temp} && cpp_ok_p=true
-    grep "^ *\^ *\^" ${temp} | sed -e "s/ *\^ *\^//g" -e "s/\^ *: *\^/;/g"
+    sed -ne "s/ *\^ *: *\^/\n/;s/[^\n]*\^ *\^ *\([^\n]*\)/\1;/;tx;d;:x;P;D" ${temp}
 }
 
 ## main
diff --git a/test-suite/standalone/test-guile-snarf b/test-suite/standalone/test-guile-snarf
index 94cfd9023..78d35ea16 100755
--- a/test-suite/standalone/test-guile-snarf
+++ b/test-suite/standalone/test-guile-snarf
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ snarf_test ()
 
 snarf_test "^^a^:^" "a;"
 snarf_test "  ^  ^  b  ^  :  ^  " "b;"
-#snarf_test "c\n^^d^:^\ne" "d;"
-#snarf_test "f^^g^:^h" "g;"
-#snarf_test "^^i^:^j^^k^:^" "i;k;"
+snarf_test "c\n^^d^:^\ne" "d;"
+snarf_test "f^^g^:^h" "g;"
+snarf_test "^^i^:^j^^k^:^" "i;k;"