diff --git a/openwrtbuilder b/openwrtbuilder
index 6fbade6..bdc5eec 100755
--- a/openwrtbuilder
+++ b/openwrtbuilder
@@ -768,7 +768,8 @@ main() {
     local raw_release="${USER_RELEASE:=${P_ARR[release]:=$RELEASE}}"
 
     # single call to normalize+ref
-    read release ref < <(normalize_and_ref "$raw_release" "$mode")
+    debug "normalize_and_ref output: $(normalize_and_ref "$raw_release" "$mode")"
+    read -r release ref < <(normalize_and_ref "$raw_release" "$mode")
 
     debug "Using release: $release, ref: $ref, mode: $mode"