diff --git a/lib/puppet/provider/package/zypper.rb b/lib/puppet/provider/package/zypper.rb
index b0caf2840..8323a4cc2 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/provider/package/zypper.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/provider/package/zypper.rb
@@ -1,83 +1,84 @@
 Puppet::Type.type(:package).provide :zypper, :parent => :rpm do
   desc "Support for SuSE `zypper` package manager. Found in SLES10sp2+ and SLES11"
 
   has_feature :versionable
 
   commands :zypper => "/usr/bin/zypper"
 
   confine    :operatingsystem => [:suse, :sles, :sled, :opensuse]
 
   #on zypper versions <1.0, the version option returns 1
   #some versions of zypper output on stderr
   def zypper_version
-    zypper "--version", { :failonfail => false, :combine => true}
+    cmd = [self.class.command(:zypper),"--version"]
+    execute(cmd, { :failonfail => false, :combine => true})
   end
 
   # Install a package using 'zypper'.
   def install
     should = @resource.should(:ensure)
     self.debug "Ensuring => #{should}"
     wanted = @resource[:name]
 
     # XXX: We don't actually deal with epochs here.
     case should
     when true, false, Symbol
       # pass
     else
       # Add the package version
       wanted = "#{wanted}-#{should}"
     end
 
     #This has been tested with following zypper versions
     #SLE 10.2: 0.6.104
     #SLE 11.0: 1.0.8
     #OpenSuse 10.2: 0.6.13
     #OpenSuse 11.2: 1.2.8
     #Assume that this will work on newer zypper versions
 
     #extract version numbers and convert to integers
     major, minor, patch = zypper_version.scan(/\d+/).map{ |x| x.to_i }
     self.debug "Detected zypper version #{major}.#{minor}.#{patch}"
 
     #zypper version < 1.0 does not support --quiet flag
     quiet = "--quiet"
     if major < 1
       quiet = "--terse"
     end
 
     license = "--auto-agree-with-licenses"
     noconfirm = "--no-confirm"
 
     #zypper 0.6.13 (OpenSuSE 10.2) does not support auto agree with licenses
     if major < 1 and minor <= 6 and patch <= 13
       zypper quiet, :install, noconfirm, wanted
     else
       zypper quiet, :install, license, noconfirm, wanted
     end
 
     unless self.query
       raise Puppet::ExecutionFailure.new(
         "Could not find package #{self.name}"
       )
     end
   end
 
   # What's the latest package version available?
   def latest
     #zypper can only get a list of *all* available packages?
     output = zypper "list-updates"
 
     if output =~ /#{Regexp.escape @resource[:name]}\s*\|\s*([^\s\|]+)/
       return $1
     else
       # zypper didn't find updates, pretend the current
       # version is the latest
       return @property_hash[:ensure]
     end
   end
 
   def update
     # zypper install can be used for update, too
     self.install
   end
 end