diff --git a/kernel/io.cc b/kernel/io.cc
index 4c593501c..483d303a9 100644
--- a/kernel/io.cc
+++ b/kernel/io.cc
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include "kernel/log.h"
 #include <iostream>
 #include <string>
+#include <iomanip>
 
 #if !defined(WIN32)
 #include <dirent.h>
@@ -592,4 +593,21 @@ void format_emit_void_ptr(std::string &result, std::string_view spec, int *dynam
 	format_emit_stringf(result, spec, dynamic_ints, num_dynamic_ints, arg);
 }
 
+bool needs_quote(const std::string &s) {
+	return (s.find(' ') != std::string::npos) || (s.find('\\') != std::string::npos);
+}
+
+std::string quote(const std::string &s) {
+	std::ostringstream ss;
+	ss << std::quoted(s);
+	return ss.str();
+}
+
+std::string unquote(const std::string &s) {
+	std::string result;
+	std::istringstream ss(s);
+	ss >> std::quoted(result);
+	return result;
+}
+
 YOSYS_NAMESPACE_END
diff --git a/kernel/io.h b/kernel/io.h
index 2ad0a6466..64caae078 100644
--- a/kernel/io.h
+++ b/kernel/io.h
@@ -470,6 +470,10 @@ void remove_directory(std::string dirname);
 bool create_directory(const std::string& dirname);
 std::string escape_filename_spaces(const std::string& filename);
 
+bool needs_quote(const std::string &s);
+std::string quote(const std::string &s);
+std::string unquote(const std::string &s);
+
 YOSYS_NAMESPACE_END
 
 #endif // YOSYS_IO_H
diff --git a/kernel/register.cc b/kernel/register.cc
index bd12dcc38..a255c4805 100644
--- a/kernel/register.cc
+++ b/kernel/register.cc
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ void Pass::call(RTLIL::Design *design, std::string command)
 			while (!tok.empty() && tok.back() == ';')
 				tok.resize(tok.size()-1), num_semikolon++;
 			if (!tok.empty())
-				args.push_back(tok);
+				args.push_back(unquote(tok));
 			call(design, args);
 			args.clear();
 			if (num_semikolon == 2)
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ void Pass::call(RTLIL::Design *design, std::string command)
 			if (num_semikolon == 3)
 				call(design, "clean -purge");
 		} else
-			args.push_back(tok);
+			args.push_back(unquote(tok));
 		bool found_nl = false;
 		for (auto c : cmd_buf) {
 			if (c == ' ' || c == '\t')
@@ -256,8 +256,10 @@ void Pass::call(RTLIL::Design *design, std::vector<std::string> args)
 
 	if (echo_mode) {
 		log("%s", create_prompt(design, 0));
-		for (size_t i = 0; i < args.size(); i++)
-			log("%s%s", i ? " " : "", args[i]);
+		for (size_t i = 0; i < args.size(); i++) {
+			auto maybe_quoted = needs_quote(args[i]) ? quote(args[i]) : args[i];
+			log("%s%s", i ? " " : "", maybe_quoted);
+		}
 		log("\n");
 	}