diff --git a/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs b/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
index 7e82f7a16..03b18723c 100644
--- a/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
+++ b/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ fn truncate(
                 '<' => TruncateMode::AtMost,
                 '>' => TruncateMode::AtLeast,
                 '/' => TruncateMode::RoundDown,
-                '*' => TruncateMode::RoundUp,
+                '%' => TruncateMode::RoundUp,
                 _ => TruncateMode::Absolute, /* assume that the size is just a number */
             };
 
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs b/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
index 24a25c63f..120982e3c 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ fn test_round_up() {
     let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
     let mut file = at.make_file(TFILE2);
     file.write_all(b"1234567890").unwrap();
-    ucmd.args(&["--size", "*4", TFILE2]).succeeds();
+    ucmd.args(&["--size", "%4", TFILE2]).succeeds();
     file.seek(SeekFrom::End(0)).unwrap();
     let actual = file.seek(SeekFrom::Current(0)).unwrap();
     assert!(