diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-user b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-user
index 0a287aa7c..737efb7f0 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-user
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-user
@@ -573,7 +573,7 @@ function deleteUser() {
   rolesTmpFile="${socRolesFile}.tmp"
   createFile "$rolesTmpFile" "$soUID" "$soGID"
   grep -v "$identityId" "$socRolesFile" > "$rolesTmpFile"
-  mv "$rolesTmpFile" "$socRolesFile"
+  cat "$rolesTmpFile" > "$socRolesFile"
 }
 
 case "${operation}" in