diff --git a/tools/fleet/lib/box.py b/tools/fleet/lib/box.py
index a650c425e..a00808b61 100644
--- a/tools/fleet/lib/box.py
+++ b/tools/fleet/lib/box.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ KEY = os.path.expanduser("~/.ssh/igneum-fleet")
 SSH_OPTS = ["-i", KEY, "-o", "StrictHostKeyChecking=no", "-o", "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null", "-o", "LogLevel=ERROR",
             "-o", "ConnectTimeout=20", "-o", "ServerAliveInterval=10", "-o", "ServerAliveCountMax=3", "-o", "BatchMode=yes"]
 B = "/opt/igneum/pkg/bin"; F = "/root/fleet"
-NODE_PATH_PATTERN = "^/root/fleet/in/igneumd|^/opt/igneum/pkg/bin/igneumd"
+NODE_PATH_PATTERN = "^[/]root/fleet/in/igneumd|^[/]opt/igneum/pkg/bin/igneumd"   # the bracket form: the shell that runs a pgrep/pkill with this pattern never matches itself
 def now(): return datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
 class SshError(RuntimeError): pass
 def hexi(v):