diff --git a/manifests/quadlet.pp b/manifests/quadlet.pp
index ce33377..c715774 100644
--- a/manifests/quadlet.pp
+++ b/manifests/quadlet.pp
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@
   # We can only validate a directory of quadlet files and the file extension of the new
   # quadlet must be correct so we cannot test % directly :-(
   #
-  # Create a new tmp directory and copy the new quadlet and existing quadlet there to validate.
+  # Create a new tmp directory and copy the new quadlet to validate it.
   $_validate_cmd = $validate_quadlet ? {
     true    => epp('quadlets/validate_cmd.epp', {
       'quadlet' => $quadlet,
diff --git a/templates/validate_cmd.epp b/templates/validate_cmd.epp
index b99ef0b..83e3d82 100644
--- a/templates/validate_cmd.epp
+++ b/templates/validate_cmd.epp
@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@
     set -euo pipefail;
     d=$(mktemp -d);
     quad=$d/<%= $quadlet %>;
-    existing=(<%= $dest %>/*)
-    ((${#existing[@]})) && cp -- "${existing[@]}" $d/.
-    trap "rm $d/* ; rmdir $d" EXIT;
     cp % $quad;
-    env QUADLET_UNIT_DIRS=$d <%= $is_user ? { true => '/usr/lib/systemd/user-generators/podman-user-generator', default => '/usr/lib/systemd/system-generators/podman-system-generator' } %> --dryrun
+    trap "rm $quad ; rmdir $d" EXIT;
+    <%- if $is_user { -%>
+    env QUADLET_UNIT_DIRS=$d:<%= $dest %> /usr/lib/systemd/user-generators/podman-user-generator --dryrun
+    <%- } else  { -%>
+    env QUADLET_UNIT_DIRS=$d:<%= $dest %> /usr/lib/systemd/system-generators/podman-system-generator --dryrun
+    <%- } -%>
 '