diff --git a/IPython/prefilter.py b/IPython/prefilter.py
index d317884..ad84deb 100644
--- a/IPython/prefilter.py
+++ b/IPython/prefilter.py
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ def splitUserInput(line, pattern=None):
 
     #print 'line:<%s>' % line # dbg
     #print 'pre <%s> iFun <%s> rest <%s>' % (pre,iFun.strip(),theRest) # dbg
-    return pre,iFun.strip(),theRest
+    return pre,iFun.strip(),theRest.lstrip()
 
 
 # RegExp for splitting line contents into pre-char//first word-method//rest.
@@ -122,10 +122,10 @@ def splitUserInput(line, pattern=None):
 # The three parts of the regex are:
 #  1) pre:     pre_char *or* initial whitespace 
 #  2) iFun:    first word/method (mix of \w and '.')
-#  3) theRest: rest of line
+#  3) theRest: rest of line (separated from iFun by space if non-empty)
 line_split = re.compile(r'^([,;/%?]|!!?|\s*)'
-                        r'\s*([\w\.]+)\s*'
-                        r'(.*)$')
+                        r'\s*([\w\.]+)'
+                        r'(\s+.*$|$)')
 
 shell_line_split = re.compile(r'^(\s*)(\S*\s*)(.*$)')
 
diff --git a/test/test_handlers.py b/test/test_handlers.py
index 9f15656..495239b 100644
--- a/test/test_handlers.py
+++ b/test/test_handlers.py
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ def run(tests):
         ip.runlines(pre)
         ip.runlines('_i')  # Not sure why I need this...
         actual = ip.user_ns['_i']
-        if actual != None: actual = actual.rstrip('\n')
+        if actual != None:
+            actual = actual.rstrip('\n')
         if actual != post:
             failures.append('Expected %r to become %r, found %r' % (
                 pre, post, actual))
@@ -53,8 +54,8 @@ try:
     # write anything to stdout.
 
     # Turn off actual execution of aliases, because it's noisy
-    old_system_cmd = ip.IP.system
-    ip.IP.system = lambda cmd: None
+    old_system_cmd = ip.system
+    ip.system = lambda cmd: None
     
     
     ip.IP.alias_table['an_alias'] = (0, 'true')
@@ -66,7 +67,7 @@ try:
          # chars, *not* initial chars which happen to be aliases:
          ("top",         '_ip.system("d:/cygwin/top ")'),
          ])
-    ip.IP.system = old_system_cmd
+    ip.system = old_system_cmd
 
 
     call_idx = CallableIndexable()
diff --git a/test/test_prefilter.py b/test/test_prefilter.py
index f240303..4d7aa62 100644
--- a/test/test_prefilter.py
+++ b/test/test_prefilter.py
@@ -154,12 +154,24 @@ esc_handler_tests = [
     # XXX Possibly, add test for /,; once those are unhooked from %autocall
     ( 'emacs_mode # PYTHON-MODE', handle_emacs ),
     ( ' ',         handle_normal), 
+
     # Trailing qmark combos.  Odd special cases abound
-    ( '!thing?',   handle_shell_escape), # trailing '?' loses to shell esc
-    ( '!thing ?',  handle_shell_escape),
-    ( '!!thing?',  handle_shell_escape),
+
+    # The key is: we don't want the trailing ? to trigger help if it's a
+    # part of a shell glob (like, e.g. '!ls file.?').  Instead, we want the
+    # shell handler to be called.  Due to subtleties of the input string
+    # parsing, however, we only call the shell handler if the trailing ? is
+    # part of something whitespace-separated from the !cmd.  See examples.
+    ( '!thing?',      handle_help), 
+    ( '!thing arg?',  handle_shell_escape),
+    ( '!!thing?',     handle_help),
+    ( '!!thing arg?', handle_shell_escape),
+
+    # For all other leading esc chars, we always trigger help
     ( '%cmd?',     handle_help),
+    ( '%cmd ?',    handle_help),
     ( '/cmd?',     handle_help),
+    ( '/cmd ?',    handle_help),
     ( ';cmd?',     handle_help),
     ( ',cmd?',     handle_help),
     ]
@@ -216,6 +228,9 @@ run_handler_tests([
     ( '%does_not_exist', handle_magic),
     ( 'cd /',            handle_magic),
     ( 'cd = 2',          handle_normal),
+    ( 'r',               handle_magic),
+    ( 'r thing',         handle_magic),
+    ( 'r"str"',          handle_normal),
     ])
 
 # If next elt starts with anything that could be an assignment, func call,