diff --git a/setupbase.py b/setupbase.py
index 50f0489a2..091139bfa 100644
--- a/setupbase.py
+++ b/setupbase.py
@@ -296,7 +296,10 @@ def mtime(path):
 
 def run(cmd, *args, **kwargs):
     """Echo a command before running it"""
-    log.info(" ".join(cmd))
+    if isinstance(cmd, list):
+        cmd = ' '.join(map(pipes.quote, cmd))
+    log.info('> ' + cmd)
+    kwargs['shell'] = True
     return check_call(cmd, *args, **kwargs)