diff --git a/cli/src/main/scala-2.12/coursier/cli/Bootstrap.scala b/cli/src/main/scala-2.12/coursier/cli/Bootstrap.scala
index e9d1b6544..428c4d0a6 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/scala-2.12/coursier/cli/Bootstrap.scala
+++ b/cli/src/main/scala-2.12/coursier/cli/Bootstrap.scala
@@ -69,32 +69,35 @@ object Bootstrap extends CaseApp[BootstrapOptions] {
   private def createJarBootstrapWithPreamble(javaOpts: Seq[String], output: File, content: Array[Byte]): Unit = {
 
     val argsPartitioner =
-      """|sys_args=""
-         |app_args=""
-         |i=1; while [ "$i" -le $# ]; do
-         |  eval arg=\${$i}
-         |  case $arg in
-         |    -J-*)
-         |      sys_args="$sys_args ${arg#-J}"
-         |      ;;
-         |    *)
-         |      app_args="$app_args $arg"
-         |      ;;
-         |  esac
-         |  i=$((i + 1))
-         |done
+      """|nargs=$#
+         |
+         |i=1; while [ "$i" -le $nargs ]; do
+         |         eval arg=\${$i}
+         |         case $arg in
+         |             -J-*) set -- "$@" "${arg#-J}" ;;
+         |         esac
+         |         i=$((i + 1))
+         |     done
+         |
+         |set -- "$@" -jar "$0"
+         |
+         |i=1; while [ "$i" -le $nargs ]; do
+         |         eval arg=\${$i}
+         |         case $arg in
+         |             -J-*) ;;
+         |             *) set -- "$@" "$arg" ;;
+         |         esac
+         |         i=$((i + 1))
+         |     done
+         |
+         |shift "$nargs"
          |""".stripMargin
 
     val javaCmd = Seq("java") ++
       javaOpts
         // escaping possibly a bit loose :-|
         .map(s => "'" + s.replace("'", "\\'") + "'") ++
-      Seq(
-        "$sys_args",
-        "-jar",
-        "\"$0\"",
-        "$app_args"
-      )
+      Seq("\"$@\"")
 
     val shellPreamble = Seq(
       "#!/usr/bin/env sh",
diff --git a/scripts/travis.sh b/scripts/travis.sh
index fc68de4e7..4157fe137 100755
--- a/scripts/travis.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis.sh
@@ -141,6 +141,11 @@ testBootstrap() {
       exit 1
     fi
 
+    if [ "$(./cs-echo-launcher "-n foo")" != "-n foo" ]; then
+      echo "Error: unexpected output from bootstrapped echo command (generated by proguarded launcher)." 1>&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
+
     # run via the launcher rather than via the sbt-pack scripts, because the latter interprets -Dfoo=baz itself
     # rather than passing it to coursier since https://github.com/xerial/sbt-pack/pull/118
     ./coursier-test bootstrap -o cs-props -D other=thing -J -Dfoo=baz io.get-coursier:props:1.0.2