diff --git a/Src/subst.c b/Src/subst.c
index 14947ae36..c5c060d56 100644
--- a/Src/subst.c
+++ b/Src/subst.c
@@ -1860,6 +1860,8 @@ paramsubst(LinkList l, LinkNode n, char **str, int qt, int pf_flags,
      * joining the array into a string (for compatibility with ksh/bash).
      */
     int quoted_array_with_offset = 0;
+    /* Indicates ${|...;} */
+    char *rplyvar = NULL;
 
     *s++ = '\0';
     /*
@@ -1887,8 +1889,53 @@ paramsubst(LinkList l, LinkNode n, char **str, int qt, int pf_flags,
      * flags in parentheses, but also one ksh hack.
      */
     if (c == Inbrace) {
+	/* The command string to be run by ${|...;} */
+	char *cmdarg = NULL;
+	size_t slen = 0;
 	inbrace = 1;
 	s++;
+
+        /* Short-path for the command-running substitution ${|cmd;}
+         * The command string is extracted and executed, and the
+         * substitution assigned. There's no (...)-flags processing,
+         * i.e. no ${|(U)cmd;}, because it looks quite awful and
+         * also requires a change to the manual description of the
+         * substitution order. Use ${(U)${|cmd;}} instead, it looks
+         * cleaner. */
+	if (*s == Bar && ((slen = strlen(s) - 1) > 1)) {
+	    char *outbracep = s + slen;
+	    if (outbracep[0] == Outbrace /* && outbracep[-1] == ';' */) {
+		
+		if ((rplyvar = itype_end(s+1, INAMESPC, 0))) {
+		    if (*rplyvar == Inbrack &&
+			(rplyvar = parse_subscript(++rplyvar, 1, ']')))
+			++rplyvar;
+		}
+		if (rplyvar == s+1 && *rplyvar == Bar) {
+		    /* Is ${||...} a subtitution error or a syntax error?
+		    zerr("bad substitution");
+		    return NULL;
+		    */
+		    rplyvar = NULL;
+		}
+		if (rplyvar && *rplyvar == Bar) {
+		    cmdarg = dupstrpfx(rplyvar+1, outbracep-rplyvar-1);
+		    rplyvar = dupstrpfx(s+1,rplyvar-s-1);
+		} else {
+		    cmdarg = dupstrpfx(s+1, outbracep-s-1);
+		    rplyvar = "REPLY";
+		}
+		s = outbracep;
+	    }
+	}
+
+	if (rplyvar && cmdarg && *cmdarg) {
+	    /* Execute the shell command */
+	    untokenize(cmdarg);
+	    execstring(cmdarg, 1, 0, "cmdsubst");
+	    s = dyncat(rplyvar, s);
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * In ksh emulation a leading `!' is a special flag working
 	 * sort of like our (k).  This is true only for arrays or
@@ -2588,8 +2635,11 @@ paramsubst(LinkList l, LinkNode n, char **str, int qt, int pf_flags,
 			      ((unset(KSHARRAYS) || inbrace) ? 1 : -1)),
 			     scanflags)) ||
 	    (v->pm && (v->pm->node.flags & PM_UNSET)) ||
-	    (v->flags & VALFLAG_EMPTY))
-	    vunset = 1;
+	    (v->flags & VALFLAG_EMPTY))	{
+	    if (!rplyvar) {
+		vunset = 1;
+	    }
+	}
 
 	if (wantt) {
 	    /*