diff --git a/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java b/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
index 1e820fd7c..344141eb9 100644
--- a/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
+++ b/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.errors.BasicError;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.logging.NBLogLevel;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.markdown.exporter.MarkdownExporter;
 import io.nosqlbench.virtdata.userlibs.apps.VirtDataMainApp;
-import joptsimple.internal.Strings;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.ConfigurationFactory;
@@ -299,7 +298,7 @@ public class NBCLI {
                 .session(sessionName)
                 .now()
                 .layer(Layer.CLI)
-                .detail("cli", Strings.join(args, "\n"))
+                .detail("cli", String.join("\n", args))
                 .build()
         );
 
diff --git a/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLIArgsFile.java b/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLIArgsFile.java
index 956697eeb..ef7f9187e 100644
--- a/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLIArgsFile.java
+++ b/engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLIArgsFile.java
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package io.nosqlbench.engine.cli;
 
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.NBEnvironment;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.errors.BasicError;
-import joptsimple.internal.Strings;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -426,13 +425,13 @@ public class NBCLIArgsFile {
             String word = iter.next();
             if (word.startsWith("-")) {
                 if (element.size() > 0) {
-                    lines.add(Strings.join(element, " "));
+                    lines.add(String.join(" ", element));
                     element.clear();
                 }
             }
             element.add(word);
         }
-        lines.add(Strings.join(element, " "));
+        lines.add(String.join(" ", element));
         return lines;
     }