diff --git a/Mk/Uses/fmake.mk b/Mk/Uses/fmake.mk
index 3eb07038b017..8baf7fe07820 100644
--- a/Mk/Uses/fmake.mk
+++ b/Mk/Uses/fmake.mk
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ do-build:
 	@set -e ; (cd ${BUILD_WRKSRC}; if ! ${SETENV} ${MAKE_ENV} ${FMAKE} ${MAKE_FLAGS} ${MAKEFILE} ${_MAKE_JOBS} ${MAKE_ARGS} ${ALL_TARGET}; then \
 		if [ -n "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}" ] ; then \
 			${ECHO_MSG} "===> Compilation failed unexpectedly."; \
-			(${ECHO_CMD} ${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}) | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
+			(${ECHO_CMD} "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}") | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
 		fi; \
 		${FALSE}; \
 	fi)
diff --git a/Mk/Uses/gmake.mk b/Mk/Uses/gmake.mk
index f17382d21789..43c91f87e112 100644
--- a/Mk/Uses/gmake.mk
+++ b/Mk/Uses/gmake.mk
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ do-build:
 	@(cd ${BUILD_WRKSRC}; if ! ${SETENV} ${MAKE_ENV} ${GMAKE} ${MAKE_FLAGS} ${MAKEFILE} ${_MAKE_JOBS} ${MAKE_ARGS} ${ALL_TARGET}; then \
 		if [ -n "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}" ] ; then \
 			${ECHO_MSG} "===> Compilation failed unexpectedly."; \
-			(${ECHO_CMD} ${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}) | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
+			(${ECHO_CMD} "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}") | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
 			fi; \
 		${FALSE}; \
 		fi)
diff --git a/Mk/bsd.port.mk b/Mk/bsd.port.mk
index d9e6c9f711e6..8b4fa0f16c68 100644
--- a/Mk/bsd.port.mk
+++ b/Mk/bsd.port.mk
@@ -2178,7 +2178,7 @@ _MAKE_JOBS=		#
 MAKE_JOBS_NUMBER?=	`${SYSCTL} -n kern.smp.cpus`
 _MAKE_JOBS?=		-j${MAKE_JOBS_NUMBER}
 .if defined(FORCE_MAKE_JOBS) && !defined(MAKE_JOBS_SAFE)
-BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE+=	"You have chosen to use multiple make jobs (parallelization) for all ports.  This port was not tested for this setting.  Please remove FORCE_MAKE_JOBS and retry the build before reporting the failure to the maintainer."
+BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE+=	You have chosen to use multiple make jobs (parallelization) for all ports.  This port was not tested for this setting.  Please remove FORCE_MAKE_JOBS and retry the build before reporting the failure to the maintainer.
 .endif
 .endif
 .endif
@@ -3711,7 +3711,7 @@ do-build:
 	@(cd ${BUILD_WRKSRC}; if ! ${SETENV} ${MAKE_ENV} ${MAKE} ${MAKE_FLAGS} ${MAKEFILE} ${_MAKE_JOBS} ${MAKE_ARGS} ${ALL_TARGET}; then \
 		if [ -n "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}" ] ; then \
 			${ECHO_MSG} "===> Compilation failed unexpectedly."; \
-			(${ECHO_CMD} ${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}) | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
+			(${ECHO_CMD} "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}") | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
 			fi; \
 		${FALSE}; \
 		fi)
diff --git a/Mk/bsd.ruby.mk b/Mk/bsd.ruby.mk
index c693eaab552d..93c9c9443fc6 100644
--- a/Mk/bsd.ruby.mk
+++ b/Mk/bsd.ruby.mk
@@ -473,9 +473,9 @@ do-extract:
 
 do-build:
 	@(cd ${BUILD_WRKSRC}; if ! ${SETENV} ${GEM_ENV} ${RUBYGEMBIN} build --force ${GEMFILES}spec ; then \
-		if [ x != x${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE} ] ; then \
+		if [ -n "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}" ] ; then \
 			${ECHO_MSG} "===> Compilation failed unexpectedly."; \
-			(${ECHO_CMD} ${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}) | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
+			(${ECHO_CMD} "${BUILD_FAIL_MESSAGE}") | ${FMT} 75 79 ; \
 			fi; \
 		${FALSE}; \
 		fi)