diff --git a/Doc/library/shlex.rst b/Doc/library/shlex.rst
--- a/Doc/library/shlex.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shlex.rst
@@ -73,11 +73,11 @@
 The :mod:`shlex` module defines the following class:
 
 
-.. class:: shlex(instream=None, infile=None, posix=False)
+.. class:: shlex(instream=None, infile=None, posix=False, punctuation_chars=False)
 
    A :class:`~shlex.shlex` instance or subclass instance is a lexical analyzer
    object.  The initialization argument, if present, specifies where to read
-   characters from. It must be a file-/stream-like object with
+   characters from.  It must be a file-/stream-like object with
    :meth:`~io.TextIOBase.read` and :meth:`~io.TextIOBase.readline` methods, or
    a string.  If no argument is given, input will be taken from ``sys.stdin``.
    The second optional argument is a filename string, which sets the initial
@@ -87,8 +87,19 @@
    when *posix* is not true (default), the :class:`~shlex.shlex` instance will
    operate in compatibility mode.  When operating in POSIX mode,
    :class:`~shlex.shlex` will try to be as close as possible to the POSIX shell
-   parsing rules.
+   parsing rules.  The *punctuation_chars* argument provides a way to make the
+   behaviour even closer to how real shells parse.  This can take a number of
+   values: the default value, ``False``, preserves the behaviour seen under
+   Python 3.5 and earlier.  If set to ``True``, then parsing of the characters
+   ``();<>|&`` is changed: any run of these characters (considered punctuation
+   characters) is returned as a single token.  If set to a non-empty string of
+   characters, those characters will be used as the punctuation characters.  Any
+   characters in the :attr:`wordchars` attribute that appear in
+   *punctuation_chars* will be removed from :attr:`wordchars`.  See
+   :ref:`improved-shell-compatibility` for more information.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
+      The `punctuation_chars` parameter was added.
 
 .. seealso::
 
@@ -191,7 +202,13 @@
 .. attribute:: shlex.wordchars
 
    The string of characters that will accumulate into multi-character tokens.  By
-   default, includes all ASCII alphanumerics and underscore.
+   default, includes all ASCII alphanumerics and underscore.  In POSIX mode, the
+   accented characters in the Latin-1 set are also included.  If
+   :attr:`punctuation_chars` is not empty, the characters ``~-./*?=``, which can
+   appear in filename specifications and command line parameters, will also be
+   included in this attribute, and any characters which appear in
+   ``punctuation_chars`` will be removed from ``wordchars`` if they are present
+   there.
 
 
 .. attribute:: shlex.whitespace
@@ -222,9 +239,13 @@
 
 .. attribute:: shlex.whitespace_split
 
-   If ``True``, tokens will only be split in whitespaces. This is useful, for
+   If ``True``, tokens will only be split in whitespaces.  This is useful, for
    example, for parsing command lines with :class:`~shlex.shlex`, getting
-   tokens in a similar way to shell arguments.
+   tokens in a similar way to shell arguments.  If this attribute is ``True``,
+   :attr:`punctuation_chars` will have no effect, and splitting will happen
+   only in whitespaces.  When using :attr:`punctuation_chars`, which is
+   intended to provide parsing closer to that implemented by shells, it is
+   advisable to leave ``whitespace_split`` as ``False`` (the default value).
 
 
 .. attribute:: shlex.infile
@@ -275,6 +296,16 @@
    (``''``), in non-POSIX mode, and to ``None`` in POSIX mode.
 
 
+.. attribute:: shlex.punctuation_chars
+
+   Characters that will be considered punctuation. Runs of punctuation
+   characters will be returned as a single token. However, note that no
+   semantic validity checking will be performed: for example, '>>>' could be
+   returned as a token, even though it may not be recognised as such by shells.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.6
+
+
 .. _shlex-parsing-rules:
 
 Parsing Rules
@@ -327,3 +358,62 @@
 * EOF is signaled with a :const:`None` value;
 
 * Quoted empty strings (``''``) are allowed.
+
+.. _improved-shell-compatibility:
+
+Improved Compatibility with Shells
+----------------------------------
+
+.. versionadded:: 3.6
+
+The :class:`shlex` class provides compatibility with the parsing performed by
+common Unix shells like ``bash``, ``dash``, and ``sh``.  To take advantage of
+this compatibility, specify the ``punctuation_chars`` argument in the
+constructor.  This defaults to ``False``, which preserves pre-3.6 behaviour.
+However, if it is set to ``True``, then parsing of the characters ``();<>|&``
+is changed: any run of these characters is returned as a single token.  While
+this is short of a full parser for shells (which would be out of scope for the
+standard library, given the multiplicity of shells out there), it does allow
+you to perform processing of command lines more easily than you could
+otherwise.  To illustrate, you can see the difference in the following snippet::
+
+    import shlex
+
+    for punct in (False, True):
+        if punct:
+            message = 'Old'
+        else:
+            message = 'New'
+        text = "a && b; c && d || e; f >'abc'; (def \"ghi\")"
+        s = shlex.shlex(text, punctuation_chars=punct)
+        print('%s: %s' % (message, list(s)))
+
+which prints out::
+
+    Old: ['a', '&', '&', 'b', ';', 'c', '&', '&', 'd', '|', '|', 'e', ';', 'f', '>', "'abc'", ';', '(', 'def', '"ghi"', ')']
+    New: ['a', '&&', 'b', ';', 'c', '&&', 'd', '||', 'e', ';', 'f', '>', "'abc'", ';', '(', 'def', '"ghi"', ')']
+
+Of course, tokens will be returned which are not valid for shells, and you'll
+need to implement your own error checks on the returned tokens.
+
+Instead of passing ``True`` as the value for the punctuation_chars parameter,
+you can pass a string with specific characters, which will be used to determine
+which characters constitute punctuation. For example::
+
+    >>> import shlex
+    >>> s = shlex.shlex("a && b || c", punctuation_chars="|")
+    >>> list(s)
+    ['a', '&', '&', 'b', '||', 'c']
+
+.. note:: When ``punctuation_chars`` is specified, the :attr:`~shlex.wordchars`
+   attribute is augmented with the characters ``~-./*?=``.  That is because these
+   characters can appear in file names (including wildcards) and command-line
+   arguments (e.g. ``--color=auto``). Hence::
+
+      >>> import shlex
+      >>> s = shlex.shlex('~/a && b-c --color=auto || d *.py?',
+      ...                 punctuation_chars=True)
+      >>> list(s)
+      ['~/a', '&&', 'b-c', '--color=auto', '||', 'd', '*.py?']
+
+
diff --git a/Lib/shlex.py b/Lib/shlex.py
--- a/Lib/shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/shlex.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 # push_source() and pop_source() made explicit by ESR, January 2001.
 # Posix compliance, split(), string arguments, and
 # iterator interface by Gustavo Niemeyer, April 2003.
+# changes to tokenize more like Posix shells by Vinay Sajip, July 2016.
 
 import os
 import re
@@ -17,7 +18,8 @@
 
 class shlex:
     "A lexical analyzer class for simple shell-like syntaxes."
-    def __init__(self, instream=None, infile=None, posix=False):
+    def __init__(self, instream=None, infile=None, posix=False,
+                 punctuation_chars=False):
         if isinstance(instream, str):
             instream = StringIO(instream)
         if instream is not None:
@@ -49,6 +51,19 @@
         self.token = ''
         self.filestack = deque()
         self.source = None
+        if not punctuation_chars:
+            punctuation_chars = ''
+        elif punctuation_chars is True:
+            punctuation_chars = '();<>|&'
+        self.punctuation_chars = punctuation_chars
+        if punctuation_chars:
+            # _pushback_chars is a push back queue used by lookahead logic
+            self._pushback_chars = deque()
+            # these chars added because allowed in file names, args, wildcards
+            self.wordchars += '~-./*?='
+            #remove any punctuation chars from wordchars
+            t = self.wordchars.maketrans(dict.fromkeys(punctuation_chars))
+            self.wordchars = self.wordchars.translate(t)
 
     def push_token(self, tok):
         "Push a token onto the stack popped by the get_token method"
@@ -115,12 +130,15 @@
         quoted = False
         escapedstate = ' '
         while True:
-            nextchar = self.instream.read(1)
+            if self.punctuation_chars and self._pushback_chars:
+                nextchar = self._pushback_chars.pop()
+            else:
+                nextchar = self.instream.read(1)
             if nextchar == '\n':
-                self.lineno = self.lineno + 1
+                self.lineno += 1
             if self.debug >= 3:
-                print("shlex: in state", repr(self.state), \
-                      "I see character:", repr(nextchar))
+                print("shlex: in state %r I see character: %r" % (self.state,
+                                                                  nextchar))
             if self.state is None:
                 self.token = ''        # past end of file
                 break
@@ -137,13 +155,16 @@
                         continue
                 elif nextchar in self.commenters:
                     self.instream.readline()
-                    self.lineno = self.lineno + 1
+                    self.lineno += 1
                 elif self.posix and nextchar in self.escape:
                     escapedstate = 'a'
                     self.state = nextchar
                 elif nextchar in self.wordchars:
                     self.token = nextchar
                     self.state = 'a'
+                elif nextchar in self.punctuation_chars:
+                    self.token = nextchar
+                    self.state = 'c'
                 elif nextchar in self.quotes:
                     if not self.posix:
                         self.token = nextchar
@@ -166,17 +187,17 @@
                     raise ValueError("No closing quotation")
                 if nextchar == self.state:
                     if not self.posix:
-                        self.token = self.token + nextchar
+                        self.token += nextchar
                         self.state = ' '
                         break
                     else:
                         self.state = 'a'
-                elif self.posix and nextchar in self.escape and \
-                     self.state in self.escapedquotes:
+                elif (self.posix and nextchar in self.escape and self.state
+                      in self.escapedquotes):
                     escapedstate = self.state
                     self.state = nextchar
                 else:
-                    self.token = self.token + nextchar
+                    self.token += nextchar
             elif self.state in self.escape:
                 if not nextchar:      # end of file
                     if self.debug >= 2:
@@ -185,12 +206,12 @@
                     raise ValueError("No escaped character")
                 # In posix shells, only the quote itself or the escape
                 # character may be escaped within quotes.
-                if escapedstate in self.quotes and \
-                   nextchar != self.state and nextchar != escapedstate:
-                    self.token = self.token + self.state
-                self.token = self.token + nextchar
+                if (escapedstate in self.quotes and
+                        nextchar != self.state and nextchar != escapedstate):
+                    self.token += self.state
+                self.token += nextchar
                 self.state = escapedstate
-            elif self.state == 'a':
+            elif self.state in ('a', 'c'):
                 if not nextchar:
                     self.state = None   # end of file
                     break
@@ -204,7 +225,7 @@
                         continue
                 elif nextchar in self.commenters:
                     self.instream.readline()
-                    self.lineno = self.lineno + 1
+                    self.lineno += 1
                     if self.posix:
                         self.state = ' '
                         if self.token or (self.posix and quoted):
@@ -216,15 +237,26 @@
                 elif self.posix and nextchar in self.escape:
                     escapedstate = 'a'
                     self.state = nextchar
-                elif nextchar in self.wordchars or nextchar in self.quotes \
-                    or self.whitespace_split:
-                    self.token = self.token + nextchar
+                elif self.state == 'c':
+                    if nextchar in self.punctuation_chars:
+                        self.token += nextchar
+                    else:
+                        if nextchar not in self.whitespace:
+                            self._pushback_chars.append(nextchar)
+                        self.state = ' '
+                        break
+                elif (nextchar in self.wordchars or nextchar in self.quotes
+                      or self.whitespace_split):
+                    self.token += nextchar
                 else:
-                    self.pushback.appendleft(nextchar)
+                    if self.punctuation_chars:
+                        self._pushback_chars.append(nextchar)
+                    else:
+                        self.pushback.appendleft(nextchar)
                     if self.debug >= 2:
                         print("shlex: I see punctuation in word state")
                     self.state = ' '
-                    if self.token:
+                    if self.token or (self.posix and quoted):
                         break   # emit current token
                     else:
                         continue
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
@@ -173,6 +173,118 @@
                              "%s: %s != %s" %
                              (self.data[i][0], l, self.data[i][1:]))
 
+    def testSyntaxSplitAmpersandAndPipe(self):
+        """Test handling of syntax splitting of &, |"""
+        # Could take these forms: &&, &, |&, ;&, ;;&
+        # of course, the same applies to | and ||
+        # these should all parse to the same output
+        for delimiter in ('&&', '&', '|&', ';&', ';;&',
+                          '||', '|', '&|', ';|', ';;|'):
+            src = ['echo hi %s echo bye' % delimiter,
+                   'echo hi%secho bye' % delimiter]
+            ref = ['echo', 'hi', delimiter, 'echo', 'bye']
+            for ss in src:
+                s = shlex.shlex(ss, punctuation_chars=True)
+                result = list(s)
+                self.assertEqual(ref, result, "While splitting '%s'" % ss)
+
+    def testSyntaxSplitSemicolon(self):
+        """Test handling of syntax splitting of ;"""
+        # Could take these forms: ;, ;;, ;&, ;;&
+        # these should all parse to the same output
+        for delimiter in (';', ';;', ';&', ';;&'):
+            src = ['echo hi %s echo bye' % delimiter,
+                   'echo hi%s echo bye' % delimiter,
+                   'echo hi%secho bye' % delimiter]
+            ref = ['echo', 'hi', delimiter, 'echo', 'bye']
+            for ss in src:
+                s = shlex.shlex(ss, punctuation_chars=True)
+                result = list(s)
+                self.assertEqual(ref, result, "While splitting '%s'" % ss)
+
+    def testSyntaxSplitRedirect(self):
+        """Test handling of syntax splitting of >"""
+        # of course, the same applies to <, |
+        # these should all parse to the same output
+        for delimiter in ('<', '|'):
+            src = ['echo hi %s out' % delimiter,
+                   'echo hi%s out' % delimiter,
+                   'echo hi%sout' % delimiter]
+            ref = ['echo', 'hi', delimiter, 'out']
+            for ss in src:
+                s = shlex.shlex(ss, punctuation_chars=True)
+                result = list(s)
+                self.assertEqual(ref, result, "While splitting '%s'" % ss)
+
+    def testSyntaxSplitParen(self):
+        """Test handling of syntax splitting of ()"""
+        # these should all parse to the same output
+        src = ['( echo hi )',
+               '(echo hi)']
+        ref = ['(', 'echo', 'hi', ')']
+        for ss in src:
+            s = shlex.shlex(ss, punctuation_chars=True)
+            result = list(s)
+            self.assertEqual(ref, result, "While splitting '%s'" % ss)
+
+    def testSyntaxSplitCustom(self):
+        """Test handling of syntax splitting with custom chars"""
+        ref = ['~/a', '&', '&', 'b-c', '--color=auto', '||', 'd', '*.py?']
+        ss = "~/a && b-c --color=auto || d *.py?"
+        s = shlex.shlex(ss, punctuation_chars="|")
+        result = list(s)
+        self.assertEqual(ref, result, "While splitting '%s'" % ss)
+
+    def testTokenTypes(self):
+        """Test that tokens are split with types as expected."""
+        for source, expected in (
+                                ('a && b || c',
+                                 [('a', 'a'), ('&&', 'c'), ('b', 'a'),
+                                  ('||', 'c'), ('c', 'a')]),
+                              ):
+            s = shlex.shlex(source, punctuation_chars=True)
+            observed = []
+            while True:
+                t = s.get_token()
+                if t == s.eof:
+                    break
+                if t[0] in s.punctuation_chars:
+                    tt = 'c'
+                else:
+                    tt = 'a'
+                observed.append((t, tt))
+            self.assertEqual(observed, expected)
+
+    def testPunctuationInWordChars(self):
+        """Test that any punctuation chars are removed from wordchars"""
+        s = shlex.shlex('a_b__c', punctuation_chars='_')
+        self.assertNotIn('_', s.wordchars)
+        self.assertEqual(list(s), ['a', '_', 'b', '__', 'c'])
+
+    def testPunctuationWithWhitespaceSplit(self):
+        """Test that with whitespace_split, behaviour is as expected"""
+        s = shlex.shlex('a  && b  ||  c', punctuation_chars='&')
+        # whitespace_split is False, so splitting will be based on
+        # punctuation_chars
+        self.assertEqual(list(s), ['a', '&&', 'b', '|', '|', 'c'])
+        s = shlex.shlex('a  && b  ||  c', punctuation_chars='&')
+        s.whitespace_split = True
+        # whitespace_split is True, so splitting will be based on
+        # white space
+        self.assertEqual(list(s), ['a', '&&', 'b', '||', 'c'])
+
+    def testEmptyStringHandling(self):
+        """Test that parsing of empty strings is correctly handled."""
+        # see Issue #21999
+        expected = ['', ')', 'abc']
+        for punct in (False, True):
+            s = shlex.shlex("'')abc", posix=True, punctuation_chars=punct)
+            slist = list(s)
+            self.assertEqual(slist, expected)
+        expected = ["''", ')', 'abc']
+        s = shlex.shlex("'')abc", punctuation_chars=True)
+        self.assertEqual(list(s), expected)
+
     def testQuote(self):
         safeunquoted = string.ascii_letters + string.digits + '@%_-+=:,./'
         unicode_sample = '\xe9\xe0\xdf'  # e + acute accent, a + grave, sharp s