diff --git a/picksmaller b/picksmaller
index d46fc2092..abe4e340d 100755
--- a/picksmaller
+++ b/picksmaller
@@ -15,13 +15,6 @@ file1=$1
 file2=`echo $file1 | sed -e "s/zdat/idat.zlib/"`
 shift
 
-size1=`ls -l $file1 | sed -e "s/[^ ]* [^ ]* [^ ]* [^ ]* //" -e "s/ .*//"`
-size2=`ls -l $file2 | sed -e "s/[^ ]* [^ ]* [^ ]* [^ ]* //" -e "s/ .*//"`
-
-if [ $size1 -le $size2 ] ; then
-echo $file1
-else
-echo $file2
-fi
+ls -S $file1 $file2 | tail -1
 
 done