diff --git a/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/env-wal-e b/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/env-wal-e
index d061ee04bc..c836409ed7 100755
--- a/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/env-wal-e
+++ b/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/env-wal-e
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@ if [ -z "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" ]; then
     ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF=/etc/zulip/zulip-secrets.conf
 fi
 
-export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_key)
-export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_secret_key)
-s3_backups_bucket=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_bucket 2>&1)
-if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_key)
+export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_secret_key)
+export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
+if ! s3_backups_bucket=$(crudini --get "$ZULIP_SECRETS_CONF" secrets s3_backups_bucket 2>&1); then
     echo "Could not determine which s3 bucket to use:" "$s3_backups_bucket"
     exit 1
 fi