diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/compilers/__init__.py b/lib/spack/spack/compilers/__init__.py
index 0f0fb94c1ee44c5b38a14a54d2497b4765f13f41..36291a8f63ffe7e73b911ff0ff356735cd73706b 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/compilers/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/compilers/__init__.py
@@ -681,8 +681,8 @@ def _default_make_compilers(cmp_id, paths):
     sort_fn = lambda variation: (
         'cc' not in by_compiler_id[variation],  # None last
         'cxx' not in by_compiler_id[variation],  # None last
-        variation.prefix,
-        variation.suffix,
+        getattr(variation, 'prefix', None),
+        getattr(variation, 'suffix', None),
     )
 
     compilers = []