diff --git a/Src/builtin.c b/Src/builtin.c
index a16fddcb7..ec0376367 100644
--- a/Src/builtin.c
+++ b/Src/builtin.c
@@ -1933,10 +1933,14 @@ getasg(char ***argvp, LinkList assigns)
     asg.flags = 0;
 
     /* search for `=' */
-    for (; *s && *s != '='; s++);
+    for (; *s && *s != '[' && *s != '=' /* && *s != '+' */; s++);
+    if (s > asg.name && *s == '[') {
+	char *se = parse_subscript(s + 1, 1, ']');
+	if (se && *se == ']') s = se + 1;
+    }
 
     /* found `=', so return with a value */
-    if (*s) {
+    if (*s && *s == '=') {
 	*s = '\0';
 	asg.value.scalar = s + 1;
     } else {
@@ -3724,6 +3728,11 @@ bin_unset(char *name, char **argv, Options ops, int func)
     while ((s = *argv++)) {
 	char *ss = strchr(s, '['), *subscript = 0;
 	if (ss) {
+#define unset_workers_37914 0
+#define unset_hashelem_empty_only 0
+#define unset_hashelem_literal 1
+#define unset_hashelem_stripquote 0
+#if unset_workers_37914
 	    char *sse;
 	    *ss = 0;
 	    if ((sse = parse_subscript(ss+1, 1, ']'))) {
@@ -3733,6 +3742,47 @@ bin_unset(char *name, char **argv, Options ops, int func)
 		remnulargs(subscript);
 		untokenize(subscript);
 	    }
+#elif unset_hashelem_empty_only
+	    char *sse;
+	    *ss = 0;
+	    if (ss[1] == ']' && !ss[2] ? (sse = ss+1) :
+		(sse = parse_subscript(ss+1, 1, ']'))) {
+		*sse = 0;
+		subscript = dupstring(ss+1);
+		*sse = ']';
+		remnulargs(subscript);
+		untokenize(subscript);
+	    }
+#else
+	    char *sse = ss + strlen(ss)-1;
+	    *ss = 0;
+	    if (*sse == ']') {
+# if unset_hashelem_literal
+		*sse = 0;
+		subscript = dupstring(ss+1);
+		*sse = ']';
+# elif unset_hashelem_stripquote
+		int ne = noerrs;
+		noerrs = 2;
+		*ss = 0;
+		*sse = 0;
+		subscript = dupstring(ss+1);
+		*sse = ']';
+		/*
+		 * parse_subst_string() removes one level of quoting.
+		 * If it returns nonzero, substring is unchanged, else
+		 * it has been re-tokenized in place, so clean it up.
+		 */
+		if (!parse_subst_string(subscript)) {
+		    remnulargs(subscript);
+		    untokenize(subscript);
+		}
+		noerrs = ne;
+# else
+		XXX parse error XXX
+# endif
+	    }
+#endif
 	}
 	if ((ss && !subscript) || !isident(s)) {
 	    if (ss)