Jobs interface is looking really good now..

packetserver/http/routers/jobs.py

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import logging
 import base64
 import json
 import gzip
+import shlex
 from traceback import format_exc
 
 from packetserver.http.dependencies import get_current_http_user
@@ -20,6 +21,16 @@ from packetserver.server.jobs import RunnerFile
 router = APIRouter(prefix="/api/v1", tags=["jobs"])
 dashboard_router = APIRouter(tags=["jobs"])
 
+def tokenize_cmd(cmd: str) -> list[str]:
+    """
+    Tokenize a command string with basic shell-like quoting support.
+    Uses shlex with posix=True for proper "double" and 'single' quote handling.
+    """
+    try:
+        return shlex.split(cmd)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail=f"Invalid command quoting: {e}")
+
 class JobSummary(BaseModel):
     id: int
     cmd: Union[str, List[str]]
@@ -161,6 +172,7 @@ async def create_job_from_form(
     env_values: List[str] = Form(default=[]),
     files: List[UploadFile] = File(default=[]),
     include_db: Optional[str] = Form(None),
+    shell_mode: Optional[str] = Form(None),
     current_user: HttpUser = Depends(get_current_http_user)
 ):
     # Build env dict from parallel lists
@@ -176,6 +188,15 @@ async def create_job_from_form(
             content = await upload.read()
             files_dict[upload.filename] = base64.b64encode(content).decode('ascii')
 
+    if shell_mode == "on":
+        # Pass entire raw cmd string to bash -c
+        cmd_args = ["bash", "-c", cmd.strip()]
+    else:
+        # Use shlex to respect quotes
+        cmd_args = tokenize_cmd(cmd.strip())
+        if not cmd_args:
+            raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Command cannot be empty")
+
     if include_db == "on":
         try:
             username_lower = current_user.username.lower()
@@ -191,14 +212,13 @@ async def create_job_from_form(
 
     # Prepare payload for the existing API
     payload = {
-        "cmd": [part.strip() for part in cmd.split() if part.strip()],  # split on whitespace, like shell
+        "cmd": cmd_args,
         "env": env if env else None,
         "files": files_dict if files_dict else None
     }
 
     # Call the API internally
-    from packetserver.http.routers.jobs import create_job as api_create_job
+    response = await create_job(
-    response = await api_create_job(
         payload=JobCreate(**{k: v for k, v in payload.items() if v is not None}),
         db=db,
         current_user=current_user

packetserver/http/templates/job_detail.html

@@ -10,9 +10,33 @@
         <div class="card mb-4">
             <div class="card-header">
                 Command
+                {% if job.cmd|length > 1 or ('bash' in job.cmd and job.cmd|length == 3) %}
+                <span class="badge bg-info float-end">Multi-arg</span>
+                {% elif job.cmd|length == 1 %}
+                <span class="badge bg-secondary float-end">Single arg</span>
+                {% endif %}
             </div>
             <div class="card-body">
-                <pre><code>{% if job.cmd is string %}{{ job.cmd }}{% else %}{{ job.cmd|join(' ') }}{% endif %}</code></pre>
+                {% if job.cmd is string %}
+                <!-- Legacy fallback: old jobs stored cmd as single string -->
+                <pre><code>{{ job.cmd }}</code></pre>
+                <small class="text-muted">Legacy single-string command</small>
+                {% else %}
+                <!-- Modern list display -->
+                <ol class="mb-0 ps-4">
+                    {% for arg in job.cmd %}
+                    <li class="mb-2">
+                        <code>{{ arg | e }}</code>
+                    </li>
+                    {% endfor %}
+                </ol>
+                {% if job.cmd[:2] == ['bash', '-c'] %}
+                <hr class="my-3">
+                <p class="mb-0"><strong>Full command passed to bash -c:</strong></p>
+                <pre><code>{{ job.cmd[2] }}</code></pre>
+                <small class="text-muted">This job used shell mode</small>
+                {% endif %}
+                {% endif %}
             </div>
         </div>
 

packetserver/http/templates/job_new.html

@@ -13,6 +13,16 @@
                 <textarea name="cmd" class="form-control" rows="3" placeholder="e.g. python script.py --input data.txt" required></textarea>
                 <div class="form-text">Space-separated command and arguments (like a shell command).</div>
             </div>
+            <div class="mb-3 form-check">
+                <input type="checkbox" class="form-check-input" id="shell_mode" name="shell_mode" value="on">
+                <label class="form-check-label" for="shell_mode">
+                    Run command through shell (bash -c)
+                    <small class="text-muted d-block">
+                        Allows full shell syntax, pipes, redirects, globbing, and quoted arguments with spaces.
+                        The entire command will be passed as a single string to <code>bash -c</code>.
+                    </small>
+                </label>
+            </div>
 
             <div class="mb-3">
                 <label class="form-label">Environment Variables</label>