--- /home/local/src/emacs-snapshot-20060202/lisp/progmodes/sh-script.el	2005-12-18 01:18:45.000000000 +0000
+++ /tmp/sh-script.el	2006-03-06 14:19:09.000000000 +0000
@@ -813,6 +813,18 @@
      (:weight bold)))
   "Face to show a here-document"
   :group 'sh-indentation)
+
+;; these colours are probably ick. whatever, it's just a placeholder.
+(defface sh-quoted-exec 
+  '( ( ((class color) (background dark))
+       (:foreground "salmon"))
+     ( ((class color) (background light))
+       (:foreground "magenta"))
+     (t
+      (:weight bold)) ) 
+  "Face to show quoted execs like ``"
+  :group 'sh-indentation)
+
 ;; backward-compatibility alias
 (put 'sh-heredoc-face 'face-alias 'sh-heredoc)
 (defvar sh-heredoc-face 'sh-heredoc)
@@ -832,7 +844,7 @@
          font-lock-variable-name-face))
 
     (rc sh-append es)
-
+    (bash sh-append shell ("\\$(\\(\\sw+\\)" (1 'sh-quoted-exec t) ))
     (sh sh-append shell
 	;; Variable names.
 	("\\$\\({#?\\)?\\([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*\\|address@hidden)" 2
@@ -966,6 +978,49 @@
   ;; This looks silly, but it's because `sh-here-doc-re' keeps changing.
   (re-search-forward sh-here-doc-re limit t))
 
+(defun sh-quoted-subshell (limit)
+  "Search for a subshell embedded in a string. FInd all the unescaped 
+\" characters within said subshell, remembering that subshells can nest."
+  (if (re-search-forward "\"\\(?:.\\|\n\\)*?\\(\\$(\\|`\\)" limit t)
+      ;; bingo we have a $( or a ` inside a ""
+      (let ((char (char-after (point))) 
+            (continue t)
+            (pos (point))
+            (data nil)    ;; value to put into match-data (and return)
+            (last nil)    ;; last char seen
+            (bq  (equal (match-string 1) "`")) ;; ` state flip-flop
+            (seen nil)    ;; list of important positions
+            (nest 1))     ;; subshell nesting level
+        (while (and continue char (<= pos limit))
+          ;; unescaped " inside a $( ... ) construct.
+          ;; state machine time...
+          ;; \ => ignore next char; 
+          ;; ` => increase or decrease nesting level based on bq flag
+          ;; ) [where nesting > 0] => decrease nesting
+          ;; ( [where nesting > 0] => increase nesting
+          ;; ( [preceeded by $ ]   => increase nesting
+          ;; " [nesting <= 0 ]     => terminate, we're done.
+          ;; " [nesting >  0 ]     => remember this, it's not a proper "
+          (if (eq ?\\ last) nil
+            (if (eq ?\` char) (setq nest (+ nest (if bq -1 1)) bq (not bq))
+              (if (and (> nest 0) (eq ?\) char))  (setq nest (1- nest))
+                (if (and (eq ?$ last) (eq ?\( char)) (setq nest (1+ nest))
+                  (if (and (> nest 0) (eq ?\( char)) (setq nest (1+ nest))
+                    (if (eq char ?\")
+                        (if (>= 0 nest) (setq continue nil)
+                          (setq seen (cons pos seen)) ) ))))))
+          ;;(message "POS: %d [%d]" pos nest)
+          (setq last char
+                pos  (1+ pos) 
+                char (char-after pos)) )
+        (when seen 
+          ;;(message "SEEN: %S" seen)
+          (setq data (list (current-buffer)))
+          (mapc (lambda (P) 
+                  (setq data (cons P (cons (1+ P) data)) ) ) seen)
+          (store-match-data data))
+        data) ))
+
 (defun sh-is-quoted-p (pos)
   (and (eq (char-before pos) ?\\)
        (not (sh-is-quoted-p (1- pos)))))
@@ -996,6 +1051,17 @@
     (when (save-excursion (backward-char 2) (looking-at ";;\\|in"))
       sh-st-punc)))
 
+(defun sh-apply-quoted-subshell () 
+  "Apply the `sh-st-punc' syntax to all the matches in `match-data'.
+This is used to flag quote characters in subshell constructs inside strings
+\(which should therefore not be treated as normal quote characters\)"
+  (let ((m (match-data)) a b)
+    (while m
+      (setq a (car  m)
+            b (cadr m)
+            m (cddr m))
+      (put-text-property a b 'syntax-table sh-st-punc))) sh-st-punc)
+
 (defconst sh-font-lock-syntactic-keywords
   ;; A `#' begins a comment when it is unquoted and at the beginning of a
   ;; word.  In the shell, words are separated by metacharacters.
@@ -1006,6 +1072,8 @@
     ("\\(\\\\\\)'" 1 ,sh-st-punc)
     ;; Make sure $@ and @? are correctly recognized as sexps.
     ("\\$\\(address@hidden)" 1 ,sh-st-symbol)
+    (sh-quoted-subshell 
+     (1 (sh-apply-quoted-subshell) t t))
     ;; Find HEREDOC starters and add a corresponding rule for the ender.
     (sh-font-lock-here-doc
      (2 (sh-font-lock-open-heredoc
@@ -1018,11 +1086,12 @@
     (")" 0 (sh-font-lock-paren (match-beginning 0)))))
 
 (defun sh-font-lock-syntactic-face-function (state)
-  (if (nth 3 state)
-      (if (char-valid-p (nth 3 state))
-	  font-lock-string-face
+  (let ((q (nth 3 state)))
+    (if q
+        (if (char-valid-p q)
+            (if (eq q ?\`) 'sh-quoted-exec font-lock-string-face)
 	sh-heredoc-face)
-    font-lock-comment-face))
+      font-lock-comment-face)))
 
 (defgroup sh-indentation nil
   "Variables controlling indentation in shell scripts.
@@ -1336,7 +1405,7 @@
 The default style of this mode is that of Rosenblatt's Korn shell book.
 The syntax of the statements varies with the shell being used.  The
 following commands are available, based on the current shell's syntax:
-\\<sh-mode-map>
+
 \\[sh-case]	 case statement
 \\[sh-for]	 for loop
 \\[sh-function]	 function definition