diff --git a/src/dbStatic/dbLex.l b/src/dbStatic/dbLex.l
index d7e530dd0..da252e57f 100644
--- a/src/dbStatic/dbLex.l
+++ b/src/dbStatic/dbLex.l
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 /*************************************************************************\
-* Copyright (c) 2002 The University of Chicago, as Operator of Argonne
+* Copyright (c) 2006 UChicago Argonne LLC, as Operator of Argonne
 *     National Laboratory.
 * Copyright (c) 2002 The Regents of the University of California, as
 *     Operator of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
-* EPICS BASE Versions 3.13.7
-* and higher are distributed subject to a Software License Agreement found
+* EPICS BASE is distributed subject to a Software License Agreement found
 * in file LICENSE that is included with this distribution. 
 \*************************************************************************/
-name  [a-zA-Z0-9_\-:\.\[\]<>;]
-notquote [^\"]
-escapequote \\\"
-string {notquote}|{escapequote}
+newline     "\n"
+backslash   "\\"
+doublequote "\""
+comment     "#"
+whitespace  [ \t\r\n]
+escape      {backslash}.
+stringchar  [^\"\n\\]
+bareword    [a-zA-Z0-9_\-+:.\[\]<>;]
+
 %{
 #undef YY_INPUT
 #define YY_INPUT(b,r,ms) (r=(*db_yyinput)((char *)b,ms))
@@ -42,23 +46,12 @@ static int yyreset(void)
 "function"	return(tokenFUNCTION);
 "variable"	return(tokenVARIABLE);
 
-[0-9]+ { /*integer number*/
+{bareword}+ { /* unquoted string or number */
 	yylval.Str = dbmfStrdup(yytext);
 	return(tokenSTRING); 
 }
 
--?(([0-9]+)|([0-9]*\.[0-9]+)([eE][-+]?[0-9]+)?) { /*real number*/
-	yylval.Str = dbmfStrdup(yytext);
-	return(tokenSTRING); 
-}
-
-
-{name}+ { /*unquoted string*/
-	yylval.Str = dbmfStrdup(yytext);
-	return(tokenSTRING); 
-}
-
-\"{string}*\" { /*quoted string*/
+{doublequote}({stringchar}|{escape})*{doublequote} { /* quoted string */
 	yylval.Str = dbmfStrdup(yytext+1);
 	yylval.Str[strlen(yylval.Str)-1] = '\0';
 	return(tokenSTRING);
@@ -74,15 +67,18 @@ static int yyreset(void)
 "("	return(yytext[0]);
 ")"	return(yytext[0]);
 ","	return(yytext[0]);
-\#.*	;
-[ \t\r]	;
-\n	;
+{comment}.*	;
+{whitespace}	;
 
-.	{ 
-	char message[20];
+{doublequote}({stringchar}|{escape})*{newline} { /* bad string */
+	yyerror("Newline in string, closing quote missing");
+}
+
+.	{
+	char message[40];
 	YY_BUFFER_STATE *dummy=0;
 
-	sprintf(message,"invalid character '%c'",yytext[0]);
+	sprintf(message,"Invalid character '%c'",yytext[0]);
 	yyerror(message);
 	/*The following suppresses compiler warning messages*/
 	if(FALSE) yyunput('c',(unsigned char *) message);
diff --git a/src/dbStatic/dbLexRoutines.c b/src/dbStatic/dbLexRoutines.c
index f2800aeb7..4b89c9056 100644
--- a/src/dbStatic/dbLexRoutines.c
+++ b/src/dbStatic/dbLexRoutines.c
@@ -347,22 +347,18 @@ static void dbIncludePrint(FILE *fp)
 {
     inputFile *pinputFile = pinputFileNow;
 
-    fprintf(fp,"input line: %s",my_buffer);
-    while(pinputFile) {
-	if(pinputFile->filename) {
-	    fprintf(fp,"   in:");
-	    if(pinputFile->path)
-	        fprintf(fp," path \"%s\" ",pinputFile->path);
-	    fprintf(fp," file %s",pinputFile->filename);
+    while (pinputFile) {
+	fprintf(fp, "   in");
+	if (pinputFile->path)
+	    fprintf(fp, " path \"%s\" ",pinputFile->path);
+	if (pinputFile->filename) {
+	    fprintf(fp, " file %s",pinputFile->filename);
 	} else {
-	    fprintf(fp,"stdin:");
-	    if(pinputFile->path)
-	        fprintf(fp," path \"%s\" ",pinputFile->path);
+	    fprintf(fp, " standard input");
 	}
-	fprintf(fp," line %d\n",pinputFile->line_num);
+	fprintf(fp, " line %d\n",pinputFile->line_num);
 	pinputFile = (inputFile *)ellPrevious(&pinputFile->node);
     }
-    fprintf(fp,"\n");
     return;
 }
 
@@ -950,6 +946,7 @@ static void dbRecordField(char *name,char *value)
 	yyerror(NULL);
 	return;
     }
+    dbTranslateEscape(value, value);    /* yuck: in-place, but safe */
     status = dbPutString(pdbentry,value);
     if(status) {
 	errMessage(status,"dbPutString");
diff --git a/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c b/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
index 28c4cabcc..3d4166698 100644
--- a/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
+++ b/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #include "postfix.h"
 #include "osiFileName.h"
 #include "epicsStdlib.h"
+#include "epicsString.h"
 #include "epicsStdioRedirect.h"
 
 #define epicsExportSharedSymbols
@@ -925,15 +926,17 @@ long epicsShareAPI dbWriteRecordFP(
 		    dbGetRecordTypeName(pdbentry),dbGetRecordName(pdbentry));
 	    status = dbFirstField(pdbentry,dctonly);
 	    while(!status) {
-		if(!dbIsDefaultValue(pdbentry) || level>0) {
+		if (!dbIsDefaultValue(pdbentry) || level>0) {
 		    char *pvalstring = dbGetString(pdbentry);
 
-                    if(!pvalstring) {
+		    if (!pvalstring) {
 			fprintf(fp,"\tfield(%s,\"\")\n",
 			    dbGetFieldName(pdbentry));
 		    } else {
-		        fprintf(fp,"\tfield(%s,\"%s\")\n",
-			    dbGetFieldName(pdbentry),dbGetString(pdbentry));
+		        fprintf(fp,"\tfield(%s,\"",
+			    dbGetFieldName(pdbentry));
+			epicsStrPrintEscaped(fp,pvalstring,strlen(pvalstring));
+			fprintf(fp,"\")\n");
 		    }
 		} else if(level>0) { /*generate 0 length string*/
 		    fprintf(fp,"\tfield(%s,\"\")\n",dbGetFieldName(pdbentry));
diff --git a/src/dbStatic/dbYacc.y b/src/dbStatic/dbYacc.y
index fe882ae48..9ed514237 100644
--- a/src/dbStatic/dbYacc.y
+++ b/src/dbStatic/dbYacc.y
@@ -247,9 +247,11 @@ record_field: tokenFIELD '(' tokenSTRING ',' tokenSTRING ')'
 
 static int yyerror(char *str)
 {
-    fprintf(stderr,"Error ");
-    if(str) fprintf(stderr,"\"%s\"",str);
-    fprintf(stderr,"  Last token \"%s\"\n",yytext);
+    if (str)
+        fprintf(stderr, "Error: %s\n", str);
+    else
+        fprintf(stderr,"Error.\n");
+    fprintf(stderr,"Parsing '%s'\n", yytext);
     dbIncludePrint(stderr);
     yyFailed = TRUE;
     return(0);