diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/package.py b/meta/lib/oe/package.py
index c375acc124..ad4b7a2769 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/package.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/package.py
@@ -1017,26 +1017,50 @@ def copydebugsources(debugsrcdir, sources, d):
         bb.utils.mkdirhier(basepath)
         cpath.updatecache(basepath)
 
-        for pmap in prefixmap:
+        env = os.environ.copy()
+        env["LC_ALL"] = "C"
+
+        for pmap, prefix in prefixmap.items():
+            dstroot = dvar + prefix
             # Ignore files from the recipe sysroots (target and native)
-            cmd =  "LC_ALL=C ; sort -z -u '%s' | egrep -v -z '((<internal>|<built-in>)$|/.*recipe-sysroot.*/)' | " % sourcefile
+            sort_p = subprocess.Popen(["sort", "-z", "-u", "--", sourcefile], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, env=env)
+            egrep_p = subprocess.Popen(["egrep", "-v", "-z", "-e", r"((<internal>|<built-in>)$|/.*recipe-sysroot.*/)"], stdin=sort_p.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, env=env)
+            sort_p.stdout.close()
+
             # We need to ignore files that are not actually ours
             # we do this by only paying attention to items from this package
-            cmd += "fgrep -zw '%s' | " % prefixmap[pmap]
+            fgrep_p = subprocess.Popen(["fgrep", "-zw", "-e", prefix], stdin=egrep_p.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, env=env)
+            egrep_p.stdout.close()
+
             # Remove prefix in the source paths
-            cmd += "sed 's#%s/##g' | " % (prefixmap[pmap])
-            cmd += "(cd '%s' ; cpio -pd0mlLu --no-preserve-owner '%s%s' 2>/dev/null)" % (pmap, dvar, prefixmap[pmap])
+            sed_p = subprocess.Popen(["sed", "s#%s/##g" % prefix], stdin=fgrep_p.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, env=env)
+            fgrep_p.stdout.close()
+
+            cpio_p = subprocess.Popen(["cpio", "-pd0mlLu", "--no-preserve-owner", dstroot], stdin=sed_p.stdout, cwd=pmap, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, env=env)
+            sed_p.stdout.close()
+
+            for proc in (cpio_p, sed_p, fgrep_p, egrep_p, sort_p):
+                proc.wait()
 
-            try:
-                subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
-            except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-                # Can "fail" if internal headers/transient sources are attempted
-                pass
             # cpio seems to have a bug with -lL together and symbolic links are just copied, not dereferenced.
             # Work around this by manually finding and copying any symbolic links that made it through.
-            cmd = "find %s%s -type l -print0 -delete | sed s#%s%s/##g | (cd '%s' ; cpio -pd0mL --no-preserve-owner '%s%s')" % \
-                    (dvar, prefixmap[pmap], dvar, prefixmap[pmap], pmap, dvar, prefixmap[pmap])
-            subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            # The source copy pipeline above can fail without aborting, so there may be no copied tree to scan for symlinks.
+            if not os.path.exists(dstroot):
+                continue
+
+            find_p = subprocess.Popen(["find", dstroot, "-type", "l", "-print0", "-delete"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+            sed_p = subprocess.Popen(["sed", "s#%s/##g" % dstroot], stdin=find_p.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+            find_p.stdout.close()
+
+            cpio_p = subprocess.Popen(["cpio", "-pd0mL", "--no-preserve-owner", dstroot], stdin=sed_p.stdout, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, cwd=pmap)
+            sed_p.stdout.close()
+
+            procs = (cpio_p, sed_p, find_p)
+            for proc in procs:
+                proc.wait()
+            for proc in procs:
+                if proc.returncode:
+                    raise subprocess.CalledProcessError(proc.returncode, proc.args)
 
         # debugsources.list may be polluted from the host if we used externalsrc,
         # cpio uses copy-pass and may have just created a directory structure
@@ -1046,13 +1070,16 @@ def copydebugsources(debugsrcdir, sources, d):
 
         # Same check as above for externalsrc
         if workdir not in sdir:
-            if os.path.exists(dvar + debugsrcdir + sdir):
-                cmd = "mv %s%s%s/* %s%s" % (dvar, debugsrcdir, sdir, dvar,debugsrcdir)
-                subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            srcdir = dvar + debugsrcdir + sdir
+            dstdir = dvar + debugsrcdir
+            if os.path.exists(srcdir):
+                entries = glob.glob(os.path.join(glob.escape(srcdir), "*"))
+                if entries:
+                    subprocess.check_output(["mv", "--"] + entries + [dstdir], stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
 
         # The copy by cpio may have resulted in some empty directories!  Remove these
-        cmd = "find %s%s -empty -type d -delete" % (dvar, debugsrcdir)
-        subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+        cmd = ["find", dvar + debugsrcdir, "-empty", "-type", "d", "-delete"]
+        subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
 
         # Also remove debugsrcdir if its empty
         for p in nosuchdir[::-1]: