diff --git a/docs/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.md b/docs/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.md
index a7b23933ff7..24a85b8a2dd 100644
--- a/docs/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.md
+++ b/docs/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ used to set a user var.
 You can use something like the following from your shell:
 
 ```bash
-printf "\033]1337;SetUserVar=%s=%s\007" foo `echo -n bar | base64`
+printf "\033]1337;SetUserVar=%s=%s\007" foo `echo -n bar | base64 -w 0`
 ```
 
 to set the user var named `foo` to the value `bar`.