diff --git a/.github/workflows/valgrind.yml b/.github/workflows/valgrind.yml
index 036581c8..c1ffaebc 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/valgrind.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/valgrind.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: configure
       run: ./configure --with-rrsync --enable-debug
     - name: make
-      run: make
+      run: make check-progs   # builds rsync + the test helper programs runtests.py needs
     - name: info
       run: ./rsync --version