--- /usr/bin/checkupdates       2015-01-12 06:44:31.000000000 +0100
+++ checkupdates        2015-02-05 14:27:01.508363652 +0100
@@ -39,7 +39,12 @@
 trap 'rm -f $CHECKUPDATES_DB/db.lck' INT TERM EXIT
 
 DBPath="${DBPath:-/var/lib/pacman/}"
-eval $(awk -F' *= *' '$1 ~ /DBPath/ { print $1 "=" $2 }' /etc/pacman.conf)
+value=$(sed -n '/^[[:space:]]*[^#]/p' /etc/pacman.conf |awk -F' *= *' '$1 ~ /DBPath/ { print $2 }')
+while read res; do
+    [[ -d "$res" ]] && DBPath="$res"
+done <<<"$value"
+
+! [[ -d "$DBPath" ]] && exit 1
 
 mkdir -p "$CHECKUPDATES_DB"
 ln -s "${DBPath}/local" "$CHECKUPDATES_DB" &> /dev/null