diff --git a/src/marc_read_line.c b/src/marc_read_line.c
index 7bfa1983..000e8186 100644
--- a/src/marc_read_line.c
+++ b/src/marc_read_line.c
@@ -201,13 +201,14 @@ int yaz_marc_read_line(yaz_marc_t mt,
                     next = cp;
                     while ((next = strchr(next, marker_ch)))
                     {
+                        /* allow only alphanumeric characters */
                         if ((next[1] >= 'A' && next[1] <= 'Z')
                             ||(next[1] >= 'a' && next[1] <= 'z')
                             ||(next[1] >= '0' && next[1] <= '9'))
                         {
                             if (!marker_skip)
                                 break;
-                            else if (next[2] == ' ')
+                            else if (next[-1] == ' ')
                                 break;
                         }
                         next++;
@@ -216,20 +217,13 @@ int yaz_marc_read_line(yaz_marc_t mt,
                     if (next)
                         len = next - cp - marker_skip;
 
-                    if (marker_skip)
+                    if (marker_skip && len > 1 && cp[1] == ' ')
                     {
                         /* remove ' ' after subfield marker */
-                        char *cp_blank = strchr(cp, ' ');
-                        if (cp_blank)
-                        {
-                            len--;
-                            while (cp_blank != cp)
-                            {
-                                cp_blank[0] = cp_blank[-1];
-                                cp_blank--;
-                            }
-                            cp++;
-                        }
+                        char *cp_mod = (char *) cp; /* line is allocated locally, so we can modify it */
+                        cp_mod[1] = cp_mod[0]; /* does not deal with multi-byte subfields */
+                        len--;
+                        cp++;
                     }
                     yaz_marc_add_subfield(mt, cp, len);
                     if (!next)
diff --git a/src/retrieval.c b/src/retrieval.c
index 79358005..abecbe54 100644
--- a/src/retrieval.c
+++ b/src/retrieval.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ int yaz_retrieval_request(yaz_retrieval_t p,
             schema_ok = 1;
         else
         {
-            char *cp = 0;
+            const char *cp = 0;
             wrbuf_rewind(w);
             if (el->split && *el->split && (cp = strchr(schema, *el->split)))
                 wrbuf_write(w, schema, cp - schema);
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ int yaz_retrieval_request(yaz_retrieval_t p,
             {
                 if (*el->backend_name)
                 {
-                    char *cp;
+                    const char *cp;
                     wrbuf_rewind(w);
                     wrbuf_puts(w, el->backend_name);
                     if (el->split && *el->split && schema
diff --git a/src/solr.c b/src/solr.c
index 93f00587..1e5614f1 100644
--- a/src/solr.c
+++ b/src/solr.c
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ static int yaz_solr_decode_scan_result(ODR o, xmlNodePtr ptr,
                                        Z_SRW_scanResponse *scr)
 {
     xmlNodePtr node;
-    char *pos;
+    const char *pos;
     int i = 0;
 
     /* find the actual list */
@@ -297,19 +297,17 @@ static int yaz_solr_decode_scan_result(ODR o, xmlNodePtr ptr,
              * This is due to SOLR not being able to encode them into 2 separate attributes.
              */
             pos = strchr(val, '^');
-            if (pos != NULL)
+            if (pos)
             {
                 term->displayTerm = odr_strdup(o, pos + 1);
-                *pos = '\0';
-                term->value = odr_strdup(o, val);
-                *pos = '^';
+                term->value = odr_strdupn(o, val, pos - val);
             }
             else
             {
                 term->value = odr_strdup(o, val);
-                term->displayTerm = NULL;
+                term->displayTerm = 0;
             }
-            term->whereInList = NULL;
+            term->whereInList = 0;
             i++;
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/zoom-record-cache.c b/src/zoom-record-cache.c
index 957e8f91..d83006f1 100644
--- a/src/zoom-record-cache.c
+++ b/src/zoom-record-cache.c
@@ -109,10 +109,11 @@ static ZOOM_record record_cache_add(ZOOM_resultset r,
     {
         if (diag->uri)
         {
-            char *cp;
-            rc->rec.diag_set = odr_strdup(r->odr, diag->uri);
-            if ((cp = strrchr(rc->rec.diag_set, '/')))
-                *cp = '\0';
+            const char *cp = strrchr(diag->uri, '/');
+            if (cp)
+                rc->rec.diag_set = odr_strdupn(r->odr, diag->uri, cp - diag->uri);
+            else
+                rc->rec.diag_set = odr_strdup(r->odr, diag->uri);
             rc->rec.diag_uri = odr_strdup(r->odr, diag->uri);
         }
         rc->rec.diag_message = odr_strdup_null(r->odr, diag->message);
diff --git a/test/test_marc_read_sax.c b/test/test_marc_read_sax.c
index 7f335ce8..90029a6f 100644
--- a/test/test_marc_read_sax.c
+++ b/test/test_marc_read_sax.c
@@ -41,8 +41,16 @@ static void tst1(void)
     yaz_marc_t mt = yaz_marc_create();
     yaz_marc_sax_t yt = yaz_marc_sax_new(mt, handler, &user_data);
     xmlSAXHandlerPtr sax_ptr = yaz_marc_sax_get_handler(yt);
+    xmlParserCtxtPtr parser_ctxt = xmlCreatePushParserCtxt(sax_ptr, yt,
+                                                           marcxml,
+                                                           strlen(marcxml), 0);
 
-    xmlSAXUserParseMemory(sax_ptr, yt, marcxml, strlen(marcxml));
+    YAZ_CHECK(parser_ctxt);
+    if (parser_ctxt)
+    {
+        YAZ_CHECK_EQ(xmlParseChunk(parser_ctxt, 0, 0, 1), 0);
+        xmlFreeParserCtxt(parser_ctxt);
+    }
 
     const char *expect = "<record xmlns=\"http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim\">\n"
                      "  <leader>00062cgm a2200037Ia 4500</leader>\n"
diff --git a/test/test_tpath.c b/test/test_tpath.c
index d199aadb..265df978 100644
--- a/test/test_tpath.c
+++ b/test/test_tpath.c
@@ -2,15 +2,14 @@
  * Copyright (C) Index Data
  * See the file LICENSE for details.
  */
-#include <yaz/tpath.h>
-#include <yaz/test.h>
-#include <string.h>
-#include <yaz/log.h>
-
 #if HAVE_CONFIG_H
 #include <config.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <yaz/tpath.h>
+#include <yaz/test.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <yaz/log.h>
 
 static void tst_tpath(void)
 {