diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b2692a2..0327601 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- `scontrol` values containing a space are no longer cut at the space, so a job whose working directory, script or log path has a space in it now opens the right file instead of waiting forever on a path that does not exist.
+
 ## [0.2.0] - 2026-08-28
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/backend/commands.rs b/src/backend/commands.rs
index 8684fbe..181626a 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands.rs
+++ b/src/backend/commands.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 use async_process::{Command, Output};
 use color_eyre::Result;
+use regex::Regex;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
+use std::sync::LazyLock;
+
+/// A key in `scontrol` output: a word ending in `=`, at the start of the text
+/// or after whitespace. Everything up to the next key is the value.
+static SCONTROL_KEY: LazyLock<Regex> =
+    LazyLock::new(|| Regex::new(r"(?:^|\s)([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_:]*)=").unwrap());
 
 pub fn check_slurm_available() -> Result<()> {
     use std::process::Command as StdCommand;
@@ -58,13 +65,27 @@ pub fn scontrol_show_job(job_id: &str) -> Option<JobDetail> {
 }
 
 /// Parse scontrol's space-separated `Key=Value` output into a map.
+///
+/// Values run from the `=` to the start of the next key rather than to the
+/// next space, so paths containing spaces survive. All four values sqwatch
+/// keeps are user-controlled paths.
 pub fn parse_scontrol_kv(text: &str) -> HashMap<String, String> {
-    let mut out = HashMap::new();
-    for token in text.split_whitespace() {
-        if let Some(eq) = token.find('=') {
-            out.insert(token[..eq].to_string(), token[eq + 1..].to_string());
-        }
+    let keys: Vec<_> = SCONTROL_KEY.captures_iter(text).collect();
+    let mut out = HashMap::with_capacity(keys.len());
+
+    for (i, cap) in keys.iter().enumerate() {
+        let name = cap.get(1).expect("key group always matches");
+        let value_start = cap.get(0).expect("whole match").end();
+        let value_end = match keys.get(i + 1) {
+            Some(next) => next.get(1).expect("key group always matches").start(),
+            None => text.len(),
+        };
+        out.insert(
+            name.as_str().to_string(),
+            text[value_start..value_end].trim().to_string(),
+        );
     }
+
     out
 }
 
@@ -148,3 +169,67 @@ pub async fn list_qos() -> Vec<String> {
         .filter(|l| !l.is_empty())
         .collect()
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// One line of `scontrol show job -o`, with a space in three of the paths.
+    const SPACED: &str = "JobId=42 JobName=my job UserId=me(1000) JobState=RUNNING \
+StdOut=/home/me/my logs/out.txt StdErr=/home/me/my logs/err.txt \
+WorkDir=/scratch/Smith Lab Command=/home/me/run.sh";
+
+    #[test]
+    fn keeps_paths_that_contain_spaces() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv(SPACED);
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("StdOut").unwrap(), "/home/me/my logs/out.txt");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("StdErr").unwrap(), "/home/me/my logs/err.txt");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("WorkDir").unwrap(), "/scratch/Smith Lab");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobName").unwrap(), "my job");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn keeps_reading_after_a_value_with_a_space() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv(SPACED);
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobId").unwrap(), "42");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobState").unwrap(), "RUNNING");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("Command").unwrap(), "/home/me/run.sh");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn parses_ordinary_output_unchanged() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv("JobId=7 Partition=gpu NumCPUs=4 Priority=41823");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobId").unwrap(), "7");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("Partition").unwrap(), "gpu");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("NumCPUs").unwrap(), "4");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("Priority").unwrap(), "41823");
+        assert_eq!(kv.len(), 4);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn keeps_keys_that_carry_a_colon() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv("TresPerNode=gres:gpu:2 MinMemoryNode=8G");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("TresPerNode").unwrap(), "gres:gpu:2");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("MinMemoryNode").unwrap(), "8G");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn an_empty_value_stays_empty() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv("Comment= JobId=1");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("Comment").unwrap(), "");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobId").unwrap(), "1");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_multi_line_response_is_read_to_the_end() {
+        let kv = parse_scontrol_kv("JobId=1 WorkDir=/a b\nJobId=2 WorkDir=/c d\n");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("JobId").unwrap(), "2");
+        assert_eq!(kv.get("WorkDir").unwrap(), "/c d");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn no_keys_gives_an_empty_map() {
+        assert!(parse_scontrol_kv("").is_empty());
+        assert!(parse_scontrol_kv("slurm_load_jobs error: Invalid job id").is_empty());
+    }
+}