diff --git a/lib/util/ktutil.inc b/lib/util/ktutil.inc
index 3d2a3ac..019ba1a 100644
--- a/lib/util/ktutil.inc
+++ b/lib/util/ktutil.inc
@@ -128,6 +128,27 @@ class KTUtil {
         return array(join(" AND ", $aStrings), $aParams);
     }
     // }}}
+
+    // function safeShellString
+    function safeShellString () {
+        $aArgs = func_get_args();
+        $aSafeArgs = array();
+        if (is_array($aArgs[0])) {
+            $aArgs = $aArgs[0];
+        }
+        $aSafeArgs[] = escapeshellarg(array_shift($aArgs));
+        if (is_array($aArgs[0])) {
+            $aArgs = $aArgs;
+        }
+        foreach ($aArgs as $sArg) {
+            if (empty($sArg)) {
+                $aSafeArgs[] = "''";
+            } else {
+                $aSafeArgs[] = escapeshellarg($sArg);
+            }
+        }
+        return join(" ", $aSafeArgs);
+    }
 }
 // }}}
 
diff --git a/tests/util/ktutil/testSafeShellString.php b/tests/util/ktutil/testSafeShellString.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fd6a67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/util/ktutil/testSafeShellString.php
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+<?php
+
+require_once("../../../config/dmsDefaults.php");
+require_once(KT_LIB_DIR . "/util/ktutil.inc");
+
+$aSource = array(
+    array('unzip', "-q", "-j", "-n", "-d", '/tmp', '5 July 2005 Pricelist - Rectron(cpt).zip'),
+    array('unzip', "-q", "-j", "-n", "-d", '/tmp', "5'th July 2005 Pricelist - Rectron(cpt).zip"),
+    array('echo', ''),
+    array('echo', ' '),
+);
+
+$aExpectedResults = array(
+  "'unzip' '-q' '-j' '-n' '-d' '/tmp' '5 July 2005 Pricelist - Rectron(cpt).zip'",
+  "'unzip' '-q' '-j' '-n' '-d' '/tmp' '5'\''th July 2005 Pricelist - Rectron(cpt).zip'",
+  "'echo' ''",
+  "'echo' ' '",
+);
+
+$aResults = array();
+
+foreach ($aSource as $aArgs) {
+    $aResults[] = KTUtil::safeShellString($aArgs);
+}
+
+if ($aResults === $aExpectedResults) {
+    print "Success!\n";
+} else {
+    print "Failure!\n";
+    print "Received: " . print_r($aResults, true) . "\n";
+    print "Expected: " . print_r($aExpectedResults, true) . "\n";
+}
+
+?>