diff --git a/bin/getwhitespace.sh b/bin/getwhitespace.sh
index 4dd0490d0d0c48ccc2bf74f5a8e617abf565a7fd..be8f0e2e217bad5d3443ced5bcd3a3cabf1b74ce 100755
--- a/bin/getwhitespace.sh
+++ b/bin/getwhitespace.sh
@@ -1,14 +1,17 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-printf "/* File generated on `date`
+cat <<END
+/* File generated on `date`
 by getwhitespace <UnicodeData.txt */
 
 #define SPACECASE8							\\
-       case ' ':case '\\\\t':case '\\\\r':case '\\\\n':case '\\\\v':case '\\\\f':	\\
+       case ' ':case '\\t':case '\\r':case '\\n':case '\\v':case '\\f':	\\
        case 0x85:case 0xa0:
-"
+END
 
-printf '#define SPACECASE16	SPACECASE8 '
+cat <<END
+#define SPACECASE16	SPACECASE8 \\
+END
 sed -n -e '
 s/^\([0-9A-Fa-f]*\);[^;]*;[^;]*;[^;]*;\([^;]*\);/\1 \2 /
 /;INFORMATION SEPARATOR /d