diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilder.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilder.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7d2eb7d3e18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilder.java
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+package org.eclipse.jetty.start;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+public class CommandLineBuilder
+{
+    private List<String> args;
+
+    public CommandLineBuilder(String bin)
+    {
+        args = new ArrayList<String>();
+        args.add(bin);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Add a simple argument to the command line.
+     * <p>
+     * Will quote arguments that have a space in them.
+     * 
+     * @param arg
+     *            the simple argument to add
+     */
+    public void addArg(String arg)
+    {
+        args.add(quote(arg));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Similar to {@link #addArg(String)} but concats both name + value with an "=" sign, quoting were needed, and excluding the "=" portion if the value is
+     * undefined or empty.
+     * <p>
+     * 
+     * <pre>
+     *   addEqualsArg("-Dname", "value") = "-Dname=value"
+     *   addEqualsArg("-Djetty.home", "/opt/company inc/jetty (7)/") = "-Djetty.home=/opt/company\ inc/jetty\ (7)/"
+     *   addEqualsArg("-Djenkins.workspace", "/opt/workspaces/jetty jdk7/") = "-Djenkins.workspace=/opt/workspaces/jetty\ jdk7/"
+     *   addEqualsArg("-Dstress", null) = "-Dstress"
+     *   addEqualsArg("-Dstress", "") = "-Dstress"
+     * </pre>
+     * 
+     * @param name
+     *            the name
+     * @param value
+     *            the value
+     */
+    public void addEqualsArg(String name, String value)
+    {
+        if (value != null && value.length() > 0)
+        {
+            args.add(quote(name + "=" + value));
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            args.add(quote(name));
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Add a simple argument to the command line.
+     * <p>
+     * Will <b>NOT</b> quote/escape arguments that have a space in them.
+     * 
+     * @param arg
+     *            the simple argument to add
+     */
+    public void addRawArg(String arg)
+    {
+        args.add(arg);
+    }
+
+    public List<String> getArgs()
+    {
+        return args;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Perform an optional quoting of the argument, being intelligent with spaces and quotes as needed.
+     * 
+     * @param arg
+     * @return
+     */
+    public static String quote(String arg)
+    {
+        boolean needsQuoting = arg.indexOf(' ') >= 0 || arg.indexOf('"') >= 0;
+        if (!needsQuoting)
+        {
+            return arg;
+        }
+        StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
+//        buf.append('"');
+        boolean escaped = false;
+        for (char c : arg.toCharArray())
+        {
+            if (!escaped && ((c == '"') || (c == ' ')))
+            {
+                buf.append("\\");
+            }
+            escaped = (c == '\\');
+            buf.append(c);
+        }
+//        buf.append('"');
+        return buf.toString();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String toString()
+    {
+        StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
+
+        boolean delim = false;
+        for (String arg : args)
+        {
+            if (delim)
+            {
+                buf.append(' ');
+            }
+            buf.append(arg);
+            delim = true;
+        }
+
+        return buf.toString();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Main.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Main.java
index f734d642562..aa1bef143d9 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Main.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Main.java
@@ -661,20 +661,21 @@ public class Main
 
     String buildCommandLine(Classpath classpath, List<String> xmls) throws IOException
     {
-        StringBuilder cmd = new StringBuilder();
-        cmd.append(findJavaBin());
+        CommandLineBuilder cmd = new CommandLineBuilder(findJavaBin());
+
         for (String x : _jvmArgs)
-            cmd.append(' ').append(x);
-        cmd.append(" -Djetty.home=").append(_jettyHome);
+        {
+            cmd.addArg(x);
+        }
+        cmd.addEqualsArg("-Djetty.home",_jettyHome);
         for (String p : _sysProps)
         {
-            cmd.append("   -D").append(p);
             String v = System.getProperty(p);
-            if (v != null && v.length() > 0)
-                cmd.append('=').append(v);
+            cmd.addEqualsArg("-D" + p,v);
         }
-        cmd.append("   -cp ").append(classpath.toString());
-        cmd.append("   ").append(_config.getMainClassname());
+        cmd.addArg("-cp");
+        cmd.addArg(classpath.toString());
+        cmd.addRawArg(_config.getMainClassname());
 
         // Check if we need to pass properties as a file
         Properties properties = Config.getProperties();
@@ -684,12 +685,12 @@ public class Main
             if (!_dryRun)
                 prop_file.deleteOnExit();
             properties.store(new FileOutputStream(prop_file),"start.jar properties");
-            cmd.append(" ").append(prop_file.getAbsolutePath());
+            cmd.addArg(prop_file.getAbsolutePath());
         }
 
         for (String xml : xmls)
         {
-            cmd.append(' ').append(xml);
+            cmd.addArg(xml);
         }
 
         return cmd.toString();
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilderTest.java b/jetty-start/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..089ed135c2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jetty-start/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/CommandLineBuilderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+package org.eclipse.jetty.start;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class CommandLineBuilderTest
+{
+    @Test
+    public void testSimpleCommandline()
+    {
+        CommandLineBuilder cmd = new CommandLineBuilder("java");
+        cmd.addEqualsArg("-Djava.io.tmpdir","/home/java/temp dir/");
+        cmd.addArg("--version");
+        
+        Assert.assertThat(cmd.toString(), is("java -Djava.io.tmpdir=/home/java/temp\\ dir/ --version"));
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void testQuotingSimple()
+    {
+        assertQuoting("/opt/jetty","/opt/jetty");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testQuotingSpaceInPath()
+    {
+        assertQuoting("/opt/jetty 7/home","/opt/jetty\\ 7/home");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testQuotingSpaceAndQuotesInPath()
+    {
+        assertQuoting("/opt/jetty 7 \"special\"/home","/opt/jetty\\ 7\\ \\\"special\\\"/home");
+    }
+
+    private void assertQuoting(String raw, String expected)
+    {
+        String actual = CommandLineBuilder.quote(raw);
+        Assert.assertThat("Quoted version of [" + raw + "]",actual,is(expected));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 2b3c38f75c8..1d7c0b49128 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <slf4j-version>1.6.1</slf4j-version>
     <build-support-version>1.1</build-support-version>
-    <jetty.test.helper>1.6</jetty.test.helper>
+    <jetty.test.helper>1.6.1</jetty.test.helper>
     <jetty.test.policy>1.2</jetty.test.policy>
   </properties>
   <scm>