diff --git a/android/defs.go b/android/defs.go
index 6f4631625..a7ba219a3 100644
--- a/android/defs.go
+++ b/android/defs.go
@@ -80,9 +80,12 @@ var (
 			Description: "concatenate licenses $out",
 		})
 
+	// ubuntu 14.04 offcially use dash for /bin/sh, and its builtin echo command
+	// doesn't support -e option. Therefore we force to use /bin/bash when writing out
+	// content to file.
 	WriteFile = pctx.AndroidStaticRule("WriteFile",
 		blueprint.RuleParams{
-			Command:     "echo '$content' > $out",
+			Command:     "/bin/bash -c 'echo -e $$0 > $out' '$content'",
 			Description: "writing file $out",
 		},
 		"content")
diff --git a/python/builder.go b/python/builder.go
index 541d2bf02..b823fcb9d 100644
--- a/python/builder.go
+++ b/python/builder.go
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ func registerBuildActionForModuleFileList(ctx android.ModuleContext,
 		Output:      fileList,
 		Implicits:   files,
 		Args: map[string]string{
-			"content": strings.Join(content, "\n"),
+			"content": strings.Join(content, `\n`),
 		},
 	})