diff --git a/bin/sh/eval.c b/bin/sh/eval.c
index c1a9cdbfcd93..d0460a024e3d 100644
--- a/bin/sh/eval.c
+++ b/bin/sh/eval.c
@@ -774,15 +774,7 @@ xtracecommand(struct arglist *varlist, struct arglist *arglist)
 	for (sp = arglist->list ; sp ; sp = sp->next) {
 		if (sep != 0)
 			out2c(' ');
-		/* Disambiguate command looking like assignment. */
-		if (sp == arglist->list &&
-				strchr(sp->text, '=') != NULL &&
-				strchr(sp->text, '\'') == NULL) {
-			out2c('\'');
-			out2str(sp->text);
-			out2c('\'');
-		} else
-			out2qstr(sp->text);
+		out2qstr(sp->text);
 		sep = ' ';
 	}
 	out2c('\n');
diff --git a/bin/sh/output.c b/bin/sh/output.c
index bf8e17d97ece..c6d118f11535 100644
--- a/bin/sh/output.c
+++ b/bin/sh/output.c
@@ -122,8 +122,7 @@ outqstr(const char *p, struct output *file)
 		outstr("''", file);
 		return;
 	}
-	/* Caller will handle '=' if necessary */
-	if (p[strcspn(p, "|&;<>()$`\\\"' \t\n*?[~#")] == '\0' ||
+	if (p[strcspn(p, "|&;<>()$`\\\"' \t\n*?[~#=")] == '\0' ||
 			strcmp(p, "[") == 0) {
 		outstr(p, file);
 		return;