diff --git a/cmake/libutils.cmake b/cmake/libutils.cmake
index acf29ae82f0..92a5b9f564d 100644
--- a/cmake/libutils.cmake
+++ b/cmake/libutils.cmake
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ MACRO(MERGE_STATIC_LIBS TARGET OUTPUT_NAME LIBS_TO_MERGE)
 
       SET(SCRIPT_CONTENTS "CREATE $<TARGET_FILE:${TARGET}>\n")
       FOREACH(LIB ${STATIC_LIBS})
-        SET(SCRIPT_CONTENTS "${SCRIPT_CONTENTS}\nADDLIB ${LIB}\n")
+        SET(SCRIPT_CONTENTS "${SCRIPT_CONTENTS}ADDLIB ${LIB}\n")
       ENDFOREACH()
       FILE(WRITE ${MRI_SCRIPT_TPL} "${SCRIPT_CONTENTS}\nSAVE\nEND\n")
       FILE(GENERATE OUTPUT ${MRI_SCRIPT} INPUT ${MRI_SCRIPT_TPL})
@@ -227,12 +227,14 @@ MACRO(MERGE_STATIC_LIBS TARGET OUTPUT_NAME LIBS_TO_MERGE)
         COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND}
         ARGS
           -DTARGET_SCRIPT="${MRI_SCRIPT}"
+          -DTOP_DIR="${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}"
           -DCMAKE_AR="${CMAKE_AR}"
           -P "${MYSQL_CMAKE_SCRIPT_DIR}/merge_archives_unix.cmake"
         COMMAND ${CMAKE_RANLIB}
         ARGS $<TARGET_FILE:${TARGET}>
       )
       SET_DIRECTORY_PROPERTIES(PROPERTIES ADDITIONAL_MAKE_CLEAN_FILES ${MRI_SCRIPT_TPL})
+      SET_DIRECTORY_PROPERTIES(PROPERTIES ADDITIONAL_MAKE_CLEAN_FILES ${MRI_SCRIPT}.mri)
     ENDIF()
   ENDIF()
 ENDMACRO()
diff --git a/cmake/merge_archives_unix.cmake b/cmake/merge_archives_unix.cmake
index 8e5086bb5b7..a66daddaefc 100644
--- a/cmake/merge_archives_unix.cmake
+++ b/cmake/merge_archives_unix.cmake
@@ -14,7 +14,21 @@
 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 # Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1335  USA 
 
+
+# MRI scripts have a problem with +. It's a line contination character
+# unfortunately there is no escape character. We know we don't have
+# "+" in libraries or the MariaDB paths, but Ubuntu CI builds will have
+# in their CI path due to the package names that Ubuntu generates.
+# So here we replace the fully expanded paths in the TARGET_SCRIPT,
+# strip off the TOP_DIR to make it a relative path to the top level directory
+# and then execute AR on the top level directory.
+
+FILE(READ ${TARGET_SCRIPT} SCRIPT_CONTENTS)
+STRING(REPLACE "${TOP_DIR}/" "" SCRIPT_CONTENTS_TRIMMED "${SCRIPT_CONTENTS}")
+FILE(WRITE "${TARGET_SCRIPT}.mri" ${SCRIPT_CONTENTS_TRIMMED})
+
 EXECUTE_PROCESS(
+  WORKING_DIRECTORY ${TOP_DIR}
   COMMAND ${CMAKE_AR} -M
-  INPUT_FILE ${TARGET_SCRIPT}
+  INPUT_FILE ${TARGET_SCRIPT}.mri
 )