diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 9e568bf9c0..b50239636d 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -512,7 +512,7 @@ sub expand_aliases {
 	close(C);
 
 	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || Git::config(@repo, "core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
-	system('sh', '-c', '$0 $@', $editor, $compose_filename);
+	system('sh', '-c', $editor.' "$@"', $editor, $compose_filename);
 
 	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
 		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;
diff --git a/t/t9001-send-email.sh b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
index c0973b4e6e..030f66cb7c 100755
--- a/t/t9001-send-email.sh
+++ b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
@@ -139,15 +139,19 @@ test_expect_success 'Valid In-Reply-To when prompting' '
 
 test_expect_success 'setup fake editor' '
 	(echo "#!/bin/sh" &&
-	 echo "echo fake edit >>\$1"
+	 echo "echo fake edit >>\"\$1\""
 	) >fake-editor &&
 	chmod +x fake-editor
 '
 
+FAKE_EDITOR="$(pwd)/fake-editor"
+export FAKE_EDITOR
+GIT_EDITOR='"$FAKE_EDITOR"'
+export GIT_EDITOR
+
 test_expect_success '--compose works' '
 	clean_fake_sendmail &&
 	echo y | \
-		GIT_EDITOR=$(pwd)/fake-editor \
 		GIT_SEND_EMAIL_NOTTY=1 \
 		git send-email \
 		--compose --subject foo \