diff --git a/dev b/dev
index a060e931f1c5..ae434916a0c5 100755
--- a/dev
+++ b/dev
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ fi
 set -euo pipefail
 
 # Bump this counter to force rebuilding `dev` on all machines.
-DEV_VERSION=58
+DEV_VERSION=59
 
 THIS_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)
 BINARY_DIR=$THIS_DIR/bin/dev-versions
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/dev/testlogic.go b/pkg/cmd/dev/testlogic.go
index 93accba482a1..a6f58404e1cb 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/dev/testlogic.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/dev/testlogic.go
@@ -247,7 +247,8 @@ func (d *dev) testlogic(cmd *cobra.Command, commandLine []string) error {
 	}
 
 	if files != "" || subtests != "" {
-		args = append(args, "--test_filter", munge(files)+"/"+subtests)
+		filesRegexp := spaceSeparatedRegexpsToRegexp(files)
+		args = append(args, "--test_filter", filesRegexp+"/"+subtests)
 		args = append(args, "--test_sharding_strategy=disabled")
 	}
 	args = append(args, d.getTestOutputArgs(stress, verbose, showLogs, streamOutput)...)
@@ -259,6 +260,21 @@ func (d *dev) testlogic(cmd *cobra.Command, commandLine []string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// We know that the regular expressions for files should not contain whitespace
+// because the file names do not contain whitespace. We support users passing
+// whitespace separated regexps for multiple files.
+func spaceSeparatedRegexpsToRegexp(s string) string {
+	s = munge(s)
+	split := strings.Fields(s)
+	if len(split) < 2 {
+		return s
+	}
+	for i, s := range split {
+		split[i] = "(" + s + ")"
+	}
+	return "(" + strings.Join(split, "|") + ")"
+}
+
 func munge(s string) string {
 	if s == "" {
 		return ".*"