diff --git a/Doc/library/shlex.rst b/Doc/library/shlex.rst
index e40a10d..edd9d55 100644
--- a/Doc/library/shlex.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shlex.rst
@@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ The :mod:`shlex` module defines the following functions:
 
 .. function:: quote(s)
 
-   Return a shell-escaped version of the string *s*.  The returned value is a
-   string that can safely be used as one token in a shell command line, for
-   cases where you cannot use a list.
+   Return a shell-escaped version of the string *s* or the bytes object. The
+   returned value is a string literal or bytes that can safely be used as one
+   token in a shell command line, for cases where you cannot use a list.
 
    This idiom would be unsafe::
 
diff --git a/Lib/shlex.py b/Lib/shlex.py
index 1a6d76a..30ef43c 100644
--- a/Lib/shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/shlex.py
@@ -274,17 +274,23 @@ def split(s, comments=False, posix=True):
 
 
 _find_unsafe = re.compile(r'[^\w@%+=:,./-]', re.ASCII).search
+_find_unsafe_bytes = re.compile(rb'[^\w@%+=:,./-]', re.ASCII).search
 
 def quote(s):
     """Return a shell-escaped version of the string or the bytes."""
     if not s:
         return "b''" if isinstance(s, bytes) else "''"
-    if _find_unsafe(s) is None:
-        return s
+
+    if isinstance(s, bytes):
+        if _find_unsafe_bytes(s) is None:
+            return s
+    else:
+        if _find_unsafe(s) is None:
+            return s
 
     # use single quotes, and put single quotes into double quotes
     # the string $'b is then quoted as '$'"'"'b'
-    return "'" + s.replace("'", "'\"'\"'") + "'"
+    return b"'" + s.replace(b"'", b"'\"'\"'") + b"'" if isinstance(s, bytes) else "'" + s.replace("'", "'\"'\"'") + "'"
 
 
 def _print_tokens(lexer):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
index 4fafdd4..6483ef1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
@@ -184,9 +184,14 @@ class ShlexTest(unittest.TestCase):
         for u in unsafe:
             self.assertEqual(shlex.quote('test%sname' % u),
                              "'test%sname'" % u)
+            self.assertEqual(shlex.quote(b'test%sname' % u.encode('utf-8')),
+                             b"'test%sname'" % u.encode('utf-8'))
+
         for u in unsafe:
             self.assertEqual(shlex.quote("test%s'name'" % u),
                              "'test%s'\"'\"'name'\"'\"''" % u)
+            self.assertEqual(shlex.quote(b"test%s'name'" % u.encode('utf-8')),
+                             b"'test%s'\"'\"'name'\"'\"''" % u.encode('utf-8'))
 
 # Allow this test to be used with old shlex.py
 if not getattr(shlex, "split", None):