diff --git a/tools/offline/README.md b/tools/offline/README.md
index cb4b505fc2..820012d84e 100644
--- a/tools/offline/README.md
+++ b/tools/offline/README.md
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ source tools/offline/use_caches.sh
 
 mkdir build
 cd build
-cmake -D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C ${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG} -C ../cmake/presets/most.cmake ../cmake
+cmake -D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C "${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG}" -C ../cmake/presets/most.cmake ../cmake
 make -j 8
 
 deactivate_caches
diff --git a/tools/offline/init_caches.sh b/tools/offline/init_caches.sh
index 7f14e9dcc7..f50ba03b90 100755
--- a/tools/offline/init_caches.sh
+++ b/tools/offline/init_caches.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,6 @@ mkdir -p "$HTTP_CACHE_DIR"
 echo "##############################################################################"
 echo
 echo "To activate:"
-echo "source ${SCRIPT_DIR}/use_caches.sh"
+echo "source \"${SCRIPT_DIR}/use_caches.sh\""
 echo
 echo "##############################################################################"
diff --git a/tools/offline/use_caches.sh b/tools/offline/use_caches.sh
index d0e4a14570..71d955fe4c 100644
--- a/tools/offline/use_caches.sh
+++ b/tools/offline/use_caches.sh
@@ -57,11 +57,11 @@ echo "##########################################################################
 echo
 echo "Prepend the following CMake options to your builds:"
 echo
-echo "-D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=\${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C \${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG}"
+echo "-D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=\${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C \"\${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG}\""
 echo
 echo "or"
 echo
-echo "-D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C ${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG}"
+echo "-D LAMMPS_DOWNLOADS_URL=${HTTP_CACHE_URL} -C \"${LAMMPS_HTTP_CACHE_CONFIG}\""
 echo
 echo "pip installations and git clones (from git://) are automatically redirected"
 echo