diff --git a/lib/zstd.h b/lib/zstd.h
index 4ce2f7742..9fe542edc 100644
--- a/lib/zstd.h
+++ b/lib/zstd.h
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ extern "C" {
 /*------   Version   ------*/
 #define ZSTD_VERSION_MAJOR    1
 #define ZSTD_VERSION_MINOR    5
-#define ZSTD_VERSION_RELEASE  7
+#define ZSTD_VERSION_RELEASE  8
 #define ZSTD_VERSION_NUMBER  (ZSTD_VERSION_MAJOR *100*100 + ZSTD_VERSION_MINOR *100 + ZSTD_VERSION_RELEASE)
 
 /*! ZSTD_versionNumber() :
diff --git a/programs/zstdcli.c b/programs/zstdcli.c
index 637567b95..04e9218cf 100644
--- a/programs/zstdcli.c
+++ b/programs/zstdcli.c
@@ -686,6 +686,12 @@ static void printVersion(void)
             DISPLAYOUT("lz4 version %s\n", FIO_lz4Version());
             DISPLAYOUT("lzma version %s\n", FIO_lzmaVersion());
 
+        #ifdef ZSTD_MULTITHREAD
+            DISPLAYOUT("supports Multithreading \n");
+        #else
+            DISPLAYOUT("single-thread operations only \n");
+        #endif
+
             /* posix support */
         #ifdef _POSIX_C_SOURCE
             DISPLAYOUT("_POSIX_C_SOURCE defined: %ldL\n", (long) _POSIX_C_SOURCE);
@@ -1336,7 +1342,7 @@ int main(int argCount, const char* argv[])
 
 #ifdef ZSTD_MULTITHREAD
     if ((nbWorkers==NBWORKERS_AUTOCPU) && (!singleThread)) {
-        /* automatically set # workers based on # of reported cpus */
+        /* automatically set # workers based on # of reported cpu cores */
         if (defaultLogicalCores) {
             nbWorkers = (unsigned)UTIL_countLogicalCores();
             DISPLAYLEVEL(3, "Note: %d logical core(s) detected \n", nbWorkers);
@@ -1345,7 +1351,7 @@ int main(int argCount, const char* argv[])
             DISPLAYLEVEL(3, "Note: %d physical core(s) detected \n", nbWorkers);
         }
     }
-    if (operation != zom_bench)
+    if (operation == zom_compress)
         DISPLAYLEVEL(4, "Compressing with %u worker threads \n", nbWorkers);
 #else
     (void)singleThread; (void)nbWorkers; (void)defaultLogicalCores;
diff --git a/tests/playTests.sh b/tests/playTests.sh
index 366f9c741..3d6bcdb0b 100755
--- a/tests/playTests.sh
+++ b/tests/playTests.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 set -e # exit immediately on error
-# set -x # print commands before execution (debug)
+set -x # print commands before execution (debug)
 
 unset ZSTD_CLEVEL
 unset ZSTD_NBTHREADS
@@ -16,13 +16,7 @@ datagen() {
     "$DATAGEN_BIN" "$@"
 }
 
-zstd() {
-    if [ -z "$EXE_PREFIX" ]; then
-        "$ZSTD_BIN" "$@"
-    else
-        "$EXE_PREFIX" "$ZSTD_BIN" "$@"
-    fi
-}
+alias zstd="$EXE_PREFIX $ZSTD_BIN"
 
 sudoZstd() {
     if [ -z "$EXE_PREFIX" ]; then
@@ -1563,18 +1557,16 @@ then
     println "\n===>  zstdmt environment variable tests "
     echo "multifoo" >> mt_tmp
     ZSTD_NBTHREADS=-3 zstd -f mt_tmp # negative value, warn and revert to default setting
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=''  zstd -f mt_tmp # empty env var, warn and revert to default setting
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=-   zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=a   zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=+a  zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS='' zstd -f mt_tmp # empty env var, warn and revert to default setting
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=-  zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=a  zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=+a zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
     ZSTD_NBTHREADS=3a7 zstd -f mt_tmp # malformed env var, warn and revert to default setting
     ZSTD_NBTHREADS=50000000000 zstd -f mt_tmp # numeric value too large, warn and revert to default setting=
     ZSTD_NBTHREADS=2  zstd -f mt_tmp # correct usage
     ZSTD_NBTHREADS=1  zstd -f mt_tmp # correct usage: single worker
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=4 zstd -f mt_tmp -vv 2>&1 | grep "4 worker threads" # check message
-    zstd -tq mt_tmp.zst
-    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=0 zstd -f mt_tmp -vv 2>&1 | grep "core(s) detected" # check core count autodetection is triggered
-    zstd -tq mt_tmp.zst
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=4  zstd -f mt_tmp -vv 2>&1 | $GREP "4 worker threads" # check message
+    ZSTD_NBTHREADS=0  zstd -f mt_tmp -vv 2>&1 | $GREP "core(s) detected" # check core count autodetection is triggered
     # temporary envvar changes in the above tests would actually persist in macos /bin/sh
     unset ZSTD_NBTHREADS
     rm -f mt_tmp*