diff --git a/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll b/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
index daa03ef..f22599a 100644
--- a/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
+++ b/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
@@ -26,31 +26,33 @@
 "|"             { return PIPE; }
 "("             { return LPAREN; }
 ")"             { return RPAREN; }
-[ \t]*"="[ \t]* { return EQUALS; }  // Allow optional whitespace around equals
+"="             { return EQUALS; }  // Match "=" on its own
 (\\.|[^=\|\(\) \t\r\n])+ {
     std::string token(yytext);
-
-    // Unescape logic for backslash, pipe
     std::string unescaped;
     unescaped.reserve(token.size());
 
     for (size_t i = 0; i < token.size(); ++i)
     {
-        if (token[i] == '\\' && i + 1 < token.size())
-        {
-            unescaped.push_back(token[++i]);
-        }
-        else
+        if (token[i] != '\\')
         {
             unescaped.push_back(token[i]);
+            continue;
         }
+
+        /* If a backslash is the final char before EOF, just continue so it gets
+         * dropped as a side effect.
+         */
+        if (i + 1 >= token.size()) { continue; }
+
+        // Else push the char following the backslash.
+        unescaped.push_back(token[++i]);
     }
 
     deviceSpecplval.str = strdup(unescaped.c_str());
     return STRING;
 }
-\r?\n           { /* ignore newlines */ }
-[ \t]+          { /* ignore whitespace */ }
+[ \t\r\n]+      { /* ignore all whitespace, including newlines */ }
 .               { return yytext[0]; }
 %%