diff --git a/DEVELOPMENT.md b/DEVELOPMENT.md
index 1b33d2e2..31dabece 100644
--- a/DEVELOPMENT.md
+++ b/DEVELOPMENT.md
@@ -93,5 +93,5 @@ The multiarch images are built and published by [a Github action](https://github
 The following git command can be used to provide the bulk of release notes content:
 
 ```shell script
-git log --invert-grep --grep "^ci:" --grep "^misc:" --grep "^docs:" --pretty="- %s" 1.1.0..1.2.0
+git log --invert-grep --grep "^ci:" --grep "^misc:" --grep "^docs:" --pretty="* %s" 1.1.0..1.2.0
 ```
diff --git a/files/autopause/autopause-fcns.sh b/files/autopause/autopause-fcns.sh
index 3b2e56bf..a0466d1a 100755
--- a/files/autopause/autopause-fcns.sh
+++ b/files/autopause/autopause-fcns.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 current_uptime() {
-  echo $(awk '{print $1}' /proc/uptime | cut -d . -f 1)
+  awk '{print $1}' /proc/uptime | cut -d . -f 1
 }
 
 java_running() {
@@ -17,15 +17,15 @@ rcon_client_exists() {
 }
 
 mc_server_listening() {
-  mc-monitor status --host localhost --port $SERVER_PORT --timeout 10s >& /dev/null
+  mc-monitor status --host localhost --port "$SERVER_PORT" --timeout 10s >& /dev/null
 }
 
 java_clients_connected() {
   local connections
   if java_running ; then
-    connections=$(mc-monitor status --host localhost --port $SERVER_PORT --show-player-count)
+    connections=$(mc-monitor status --host localhost --port "$SERVER_PORT" --show-player-count)
   else
     connections=0
   fi
-  (( $connections > 0 ))
+  (( connections > 0 ))
 }
diff --git a/scripts/start-setupEnvVariables b/scripts/start-setupEnvVariables
index 67677af8..34712ded 100755
--- a/scripts/start-setupEnvVariables
+++ b/scripts/start-setupEnvVariables
@@ -1,17 +1,18 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-. ${SCRIPTS:-/}start-utils
+# shellcheck source=start-utils
+. "${SCRIPTS:-/}start-utils"
 
 set -e
 
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_IN_PLACE:=${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES:-false}}
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_PATHS:=/data}
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_SUFFIXES:=yml,yaml,txt,cfg,conf,properties,hjson,json,tml,toml}
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX:=${ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX:-CFG_}}
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDES:=}
-: ${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDE_PATHS:=}
-: ${PATCH_DEFINITIONS:=}
-: ${DEBUG:=false}
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_IN_PLACE:=${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES:-false}}"
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_PATHS:=/data}"
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_SUFFIXES:=yml,yaml,txt,cfg,conf,properties,hjson,json,tml,toml}"
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX:=${ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX:-CFG_}}"
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDES:=}"
+: "${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDE_PATHS:=}"
+: "${PATCH_DEFINITIONS:=}"
+: "${DEBUG:=false}"
 
 if isTrue "${REPLACE_ENV_IN_PLACE}"; then
   log "Replacing env variables in ${REPLACE_ENV_PATHS} that match the prefix $REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX ..."
@@ -20,15 +21,15 @@ if isTrue "${REPLACE_ENV_IN_PLACE}"; then
     --replace-env-file-suffixes="${REPLACE_ENV_SUFFIXES}" \
     --replace-env-excludes="${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDES}" \
     --replace-env-exclude-paths="${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLES_EXCLUDE_PATHS}" \
-    --replace-env-prefix=${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX} \
+    --replace-env-prefix="${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX}" \
     "${REPLACE_ENV_PATHS[@]}"
 fi
 
 if [[ ${PATCH_DEFINITIONS} ]]; then
   log "Applying patch definitions from ${PATCH_DEFINITIONS}"
   mc-image-helper --debug=${DEBUG} patch \
-    --patch-env-prefix=${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX} \
+    --patch-env-prefix="${REPLACE_ENV_VARIABLE_PREFIX}" \
     "${PATCH_DEFINITIONS}"
 fi
 
-exec ${SCRIPTS:-/}start-finalExec $@
+exec "${SCRIPTS:-/}start-finalExec" "$@"