diff --git a/utils/sl/setup_local.sh b/utils/sl/setup_local.sh
index 5e0099ec397..25b19a89483 100644
--- a/utils/sl/setup_local.sh
+++ b/utils/sl/setup_local.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # /*
 #  * (C) Copyright 2016-2023 Intel Corporation.
+#  * (C) Copyright 2026 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
 #  * (C) Copyright 2025 Google LLC
 #  *
 #  * SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause-Patent
@@ -87,14 +88,14 @@ added="/ /usr /usr/local"
 old_path="${PATH//:/ }"
 echo OLD_PATH is "${old_path}"
 for item in $list; do
-    in_list "${!item}" "${added}"
-    if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+    if ! in_list "${!item}" ${added}; then
         continue
     fi
     export "${item?}"
     added+=" ${!item}"
-    in_list "${!item}/bin" "${old_path}"
-    if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+    if ! in_list "${!item}/bin" ${old_path}; then
         continue
     fi
     if [ -d "${!item}/bin" ]; then
@@ -102,9 +103,8 @@ for item in $list; do
     fi
 done
 
-in_list "${SL_PREFIX}/bin" "${old_path}"
-# shellcheck disable=SC2181
-if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+# shellcheck disable=SC2086
+if in_list "${SL_PREFIX}/bin" ${old_path}; then
     PATH=$SL_PREFIX/bin:$PATH
 fi
 export PATH