diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
index e26de50bb..1ddb51957 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
@@ -163,10 +163,29 @@ public class Execute {
 
             BufferedReader in = 
                 new BufferedReader(new StringReader(out.toString()));
-            String line;
+            String var = null;
+            String line, lineSep = System.getProperty("line.separator");
             while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
-                procEnvironment.addElement(line);
+                if (line.indexOf('=') == -1) {
+                    // Chunk part of previous env var (UNIX env vars can
+                    // contain embedded new lines).
+                    if (var == null) {
+                        var = lineSep + line;
+                    }
+                    else {
+                        var += lineSep + line;
+                    }
+                }
+                else {
+                    // New env var...append the previous one if we have it.
+                    if (var != null) {
+                        procEnvironment.addElement(var);
+                    }
+                    var = line;
+                }
             }
+            // Since we "look ahead" before adding, there's one last env var.
+            procEnvironment.addElement(var);
         } 
         catch (java.io.IOException exc) {
             exc.printStackTrace();