Escape {string} for use as a shell command argument. When the 'shell' contains powershell (MS-Windows) or pwsh (MS-Windows, Linux, and MacOS) then it will enclose {string} in single quotes and will double up all internal single quotes. On MS-Windows, when 'shellslash' is not set, it will enclose {string} in double quotes and double all double quotes within {string}. Otherwise it will enclose {string} in single quotes and replace all "'" with "'''". When the {special} argument is present and it's a non-zero Number or a non-empty String (|non-zero-arg|), then special items such as "!", "%", "#" and "" will be preceded by a backslash. This backslash will be removed again by the |:!| command. The "!" character will be escaped (again with a |non-zero-arg| {special}) when 'shell' contains "csh" in the tail. That is because for csh and tcsh "!" is used for history replacement even when inside single quotes. With a |non-zero-arg| {special} the character is also escaped. When 'shell' containing "csh" in the tail it's escaped a second time. Example of use with a |:!| command: :exe '!dir ' . shellescape(expand(''), 1) This results in a directory listing for the file under the cursor. Example of use with |system()|: :call system("chmod +w -- " . shellescape(expand("%"))) See also |::S|. Can also be used as a |method|: GetCommand()->shellescape()