(defun shell-quote-argument (argument)
"Quote an argument for passing as argument to an inferior shell."
(if (eq system-type 'ms-dos)
- ;; MS-DOS shells don't have quoting, so don't do any.
- argument
+ ;; Quote using double quotes, but escape any existing quotes in
+ ;; the argument with backslashes.
+ (let ((result "")
+ (start 0)
+ end)
+ (if (or (null (string-match "[^\"]" argument))
+ (< (match-end 0) (length argument)))
+ (while (string-match "[\"]" argument start)
+ (setq end (match-beginning 0)
+ result (concat result (substring argument start end)
+ "\\" (substring argument end (1+ end)))
+ start (1+ end))))
+ (concat "\"" result (substring argument start) "\""))
(if (eq system-type 'windows-nt)
(concat "\"" argument "\"")
(if (equal argument "")