diff --git a/nse_main.cc b/nse_main.cc
index 24c96bbdc..be5595123 100644
--- a/nse_main.cc
+++ b/nse_main.cc
@@ -324,7 +324,9 @@ int script_updatedb (void)
     "local db = assert(open(path..'script.db', 'w'),\n"
     "  'could not open database for writing')\n"
     /* dump the scripts/categories */
-    "for i, script in ipairs(nse.dump_dir(path)) do\n"
+    "local scripts = nse.dump_dir(path)\n"
+    "table.sort(scripts)\n"
+    "for i, script in ipairs(scripts) do\n"
     "  local env = setmetatable({}, {__index = _G})\n"
     "  local thread = create(setfenv(assert(loadfile(script)), env))\n"
     "  assert(resume(thread))\n"
@@ -332,6 +334,7 @@ int script_updatedb (void)
     "  assert(type(categories) == 'table', script.."
     "    ' categories field is not a table')\n"
     "  local basename = assert(match(script, '([^\\/]-%.nse)$'))\n"
+    "  table.sort(categories)\n"
     "  for j, category in ipairs(categories) do\n"
     "    db:write('Entry { category = \"', lower(category),"
     "      '\", filename = \"', basename, '\" }\\n')\n"