diff --git a/base/REPL.jl b/base/REPL.jl
index 1616ca8f85e24..4d4349b481407 100644
--- a/base/REPL.jl
+++ b/base/REPL.jl
@@ -727,11 +727,9 @@ function setup_interface(repl::LineEditREPL; hascolor = repl.hascolor, extra_rep
             (repl.envcolors ? Base.input_color : repl.input_color) : "",
         keymap_func_data = repl,
         complete = ShellCompletionProvider(repl),
-        # Transform "foo bar baz" into `foo bar baz` (shell quoting)
-        # and pass into Base.repl_cmd for processing (handles `ls` and `cd`
-        # special)
+        # Pass into Base.repl_cmd for processing (handles `cd` special)
         on_done = respond(repl, julia_prompt) do line
-            Expr(:call, :(Base.repl_cmd), macroexpand(Expr(:macrocall, symbol("@cmd"),line)), outstream(repl))
+            Base.repl_cmd(line, outstream(repl))
         end)
 
     ################################# Stage II #############################
diff --git a/base/client.jl b/base/client.jl
index 1530242c9787d..5c8459d02d54c 100644
--- a/base/client.jl
+++ b/base/client.jl
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ exit(n) = ccall(:jl_exit, Void, (Int32,), n)
 exit() = exit(0)
 quit() = exit()
 
-function repl_cmd(cmd, out)
+function repl_cmd(line, out)
     shell = shell_split(get(ENV,"JULIA_SHELL",get(ENV,"SHELL","/bin/sh")))
     # Note that we can't support the fish shell due to its lack of subshells
     #   See this for details: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/4918
@@ -49,21 +49,24 @@ function repl_cmd(cmd, out)
         shell = "/bin/sh"
     end
 
-    if isempty(cmd.exec)
-        throw(ArgumentError("no cmd to execute"))
-    elseif cmd.exec[1] == "cd"
+    cmds = split(line)
+    if isempty(cmds)
+        # The command consists of white space only; do nothing
+    elseif cmds[1] == "cd"
         new_oldpwd = pwd()
-        if length(cmd.exec) > 2
+        if length(cmds) > 2
             throw(ArgumentError("cd method only takes one argument"))
-        elseif length(cmd.exec) == 2
-            dir = cmd.exec[2]
+        elseif length(cmds) == 2
+            dir = cmds[2]
             if dir == "-"
                 if !haskey(ENV, "OLDPWD")
                     error("cd: OLDPWD not set")
                 end
                 cd(ENV["OLDPWD"])
             else
-                cd(@windows? dir : readchomp(`$shell -c "echo $(shell_escape(dir))"`))
+                cmd = "echo $dir"
+                unixcmd = `$shell -c $cmd`
+                cd(@windows? dir : readchomp(unixcmd))
             end
         else
             cd()
@@ -71,7 +74,16 @@ function repl_cmd(cmd, out)
         ENV["OLDPWD"] = new_oldpwd
         println(out, pwd())
     else
-        run(ignorestatus(@windows? cmd : (isa(STDIN, TTY) ? `$shell -i -c "($(shell_escape(cmd))) && true"` : `$shell -c "($(shell_escape(cmd))) && true"`)))
+        # We use two shell levels: An outer one process the shell
+        # metacharacters (output redirection, command pipelines,
+        # etc.), and an inner one to redirect stdout, stderr etc. so
+        # that it doesn't interfere with the REPL's connection to the
+        # terminal.
+        parline = "($line)"
+        ttyflag = isa(STDIN, TTY) ? "-i" : ""
+        unixcmd = `$shell $ttyflag -c $parline`
+        wincmd = Cmd(Vector{ByteString}(shell_split(line)))
+        run(ignorestatus(@windows? wincmd : unixcmd))
     end
     nothing
 end
diff --git a/base/shell.jl b/base/shell.jl
index cfd7eb26ee690..50c3b879362ae 100644
--- a/base/shell.jl
+++ b/base/shell.jl
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ function shell_parse(raw::AbstractString, interp::Bool)
                     if done(s,k)
                         error("unterminated double quote")
                     end
-                    if s[k] == '"' || s[k] == '$'
+                    if s[k] == '"' || s[k] == '$' || s[k] == '\\'
                         update_arg(s[i:j-1]); i = k
                         c, k = next(s,k)
                     end
@@ -125,34 +125,56 @@ function shell_split(s::AbstractString)
     args
 end
 
-function print_shell_word(io::IO, word::AbstractString)
-    if isempty(word)
-        print(io, "''")
+"Quote by enclosing in single quotes"
+function _quote_via_single_quote(word::AbstractString)
+    # Quote by enclosing in single quotes, and replace all single
+    # quotes with backslash-quote
+    quoted = "'" * replace(word, r"'", "'\\''") * "'"
+    # Remove empty leading or trailing quotes
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"^''", "")
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"'''$(?!\n)", "'")
+    if isempty(quoted)
+        quoted = "''"
     end
-    has_single = false
-    has_special = false
-    for c in word
-        if isspace(c) || c=='\\' || c=='\'' || c=='"' || c=='$'
-            has_special = true
-            if c == '\''
-                has_single = true
-            end
-        end
+    quoted
+end
+"Quote by enclosing in double quotes"
+function _quote_via_double_quote(word::AbstractString)
+    # Quote by enclosing in double quotes and escaping certain special
+    # characters with a backslash, and by escaping all exclamation
+    # marks with a backslash
+    quoted = "\"" * replace(word, r"(?=[$`\"\\])", "\\") * "\""
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"!", "\"\\!\"\"")
+    # Remove empty leading or trailing quotes
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"^\"\"", "")
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"!\"\"$(?!\n)", "!")
+    if isempty(quoted)
+        quoted = "''"
     end
-    if !has_special
-        print(io, word)
-    elseif !has_single
-        print(io, '\'', word, '\'')
-    else
-        print(io, '"')
-        for c in word
-            if c == '"' || c == '$'
-                print(io, '\\')
-            end
-            print(io, c)
-        end
-        print(io, '"')
+    quoted
+end
+"Quote by escaping with backslashes"
+function _quote_via_backslash(word::AbstractString)
+    # Quote by escaping all non-alphanumeric characters with a
+    # backslash, and by enclosing all newlines with single quotes
+    quoted = replace(word, r"(?=[^-0-9a-zA-Z_./\n])", "\\")
+    quoted = replace(quoted, r"\n", "'\\n'")
+    if isempty(quoted)
+        quoted = "''"
     end
+    quoted
+end
+function _quote_shell_word(word::AbstractString)
+    # Return the shortest string
+    quotes = [_quote_via_single_quote(word),
+              _quote_via_double_quote(word),
+              _quote_via_backslash(word)]
+    shortest = findmin(map(length, quotes))[2]
+    return quotes[shortest]
+end
+
+function print_shell_word(io::IO, word::AbstractString)
+    print(io, _quote_shell_word(word))
 end
 
 function print_shell_escaped(io::IO, cmd::AbstractString, args::AbstractString...)
diff --git a/base/sysimg.jl b/base/sysimg.jl
index f352779f71bbb..97ae1d35c64db 100644
--- a/base/sysimg.jl
+++ b/base/sysimg.jl
@@ -91,8 +91,8 @@ include("iobuffer.jl")
 include("string.jl")
 include("unicode.jl")
 include("parse.jl")
-include("shell.jl")
 include("regex.jl")
+include("shell.jl")
 include("base64.jl")
 importall .Base64
 
diff --git a/test/repl.jl b/test/repl.jl
index 51968f0e07d27..fafc1d93529c9 100644
--- a/test/repl.jl
+++ b/test/repl.jl
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
 # This file is a part of Julia. License is MIT: http://julialang.org/license
 
+# Shell escaping
+strs = ByteString["", "asdf", "'", "\"", "\\", " ", "\$",
+                  "a\"bc\"d", "'012'3", " a ", "\n", "\\n", "\t",
+                  "echo hello", " \${LANG}", "\"println(ARGS)\""]
+for level in 1:3
+    cmd = Cmd(strs)
+    quoted = Base.shell_escape(cmd)
+    strs2 = Base.shell_split(quoted)
+    @test strs2 == strs
+    strs = ByteString[Base.shell_escape(str) for str in strs]
+end
+
 # REPL tests
 isdefined(:TestHelpers) || include(joinpath(dirname(@__FILE__), "TestHelpers.jl"))
 using TestHelpers
diff --git a/test/spawn.jl b/test/spawn.jl
index 5707e28a917f1..4819d4878650b 100644
--- a/test/spawn.jl
+++ b/test/spawn.jl
@@ -327,5 +327,5 @@ let cmd = AbstractString[]
 
     # Backticks should automatically quote where necessary
     cmd = ["foo bar", "baz"]
-    @test string(`$cmd`) == "`'foo bar' baz`"
+    @test string(`$cmd`) in ["`'foo bar' baz`", "`foo\\ bar baz`"]
 end