diff --git a/src/main/java/rife/bld/operations/AbstractToolProviderOperation.java b/src/main/java/rife/bld/operations/AbstractToolProviderOperation.java
index 1344daa..b6889ba 100644
--- a/src/main/java/rife/bld/operations/AbstractToolProviderOperation.java
+++ b/src/main/java/rife/bld/operations/AbstractToolProviderOperation.java
@@ -168,15 +168,10 @@ public abstract class AbstractToolProviderOperation<T extends AbstractToolProvid
 
             char quote = 0;
             while (ch_ != -1) {
-                if (Character.isWhitespace(ch_)) { // whitespaces
-                    if (quote == 0) {
-                        break;
-                    }
-                    buf_.append((char) ch_);
-                } else if (ch_ == '\'' || ch_ == '"') { // quotes
-                    if (quote == 0) {
+                if (ch_ == '\'' || ch_ == '"') { // quotes
+                    if (quote == 0) { // begin quote
                         quote = (char) ch_;
-                    } else if (quote == ch_) {
+                    } else if (quote == ch_) { // end quote
                         quote = 0;
                     } else {
                         buf_.append((char) ch_);
@@ -184,21 +179,19 @@ public abstract class AbstractToolProviderOperation<T extends AbstractToolProvid
                 } else if (ch_ == '\\') { // escaped
                     ch_ = input_.read();
                     buf_.append(handleEscapeSequence());
+                } else if (quote == 0 && Character.isWhitespace(ch_)) { // whitespaces
+                    break;
                 } else {
                     buf_.append((char) ch_);
                 }
-
                 ch_ = input_.read();
             }
             return buf_.toString();
         }
 
         private char handleEscapeSequence() {
-            if (ch_ == -1) {
-                return '\\';
-            }
-
             return switch (ch_) {
+                case -1 -> '\\';
                 case 'n' -> '\n';
                 case 'r' -> '\r';
                 case 't' -> '\t';
@@ -207,7 +200,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractToolProviderOperation<T extends AbstractToolProvid
             };
         }
 
-
         private void trimWhitespaceOrComments() throws IOException {
             while (ch_ != -1) {
                 if (Character.isWhitespace(ch_)) { // Skip whitespaces
@@ -218,7 +210,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractToolProviderOperation<T extends AbstractToolProvid
                         ch_ = input_.read();
                     } while (ch_ != -1 && ch_ != '\n' && ch_ != '\r');
                 } else {
-                    return;
+                    break;
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/test/java/rife/bld/operations/TestJlinkOperation.java b/src/test/java/rife/bld/operations/TestJlinkOperation.java
index 1078903..88086e7 100644
--- a/src/test/java/rife/bld/operations/TestJlinkOperation.java
+++ b/src/test/java/rife/bld/operations/TestJlinkOperation.java
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ public class TestJlinkOperation {
     }
 
     @Test
-    void testCmdFilesMulti() {
+    void testCmdFilesVersion() {
         System.setOut(new PrintStream(outputStreamCaptor));
         var jlink = new JlinkOperation().cmdFiles("src/test/resources/jlink/options_verbose.txt",
                 "src/test/resources/jlink/options_version.txt");