diff --git a/os2.c b/os2.c
index 71d810c..ece459f 100644
--- a/os2.c
+++ b/os2.c
@@ -31,14 +31,13 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <process.h>
 
-__RCSID("$MirOS: src/bin/mksh/os2.c,v 1.5 2017/10/13 11:54:06 tg Exp $");
+__RCSID("$MirOS: src/bin/mksh/os2.c,v 1.6 2017/10/13 23:34:49 tg Exp $");
 
 static char *remove_trailing_dots(char *);
 static int access_stat_ex(int (*)(), const char *, void *);
 static int test_exec_exist(const char *, char *);
 static void response(int *, const char ***);
 static char *make_response_file(char * const *);
-static void env_slashify(void);
 static void add_temp(const char *);
 static void cleanup_temps(void);
 static void cleanup(void);
@@ -170,44 +169,12 @@ init_extlibpath(void)
 	}
 }
 
-/*
- * Convert backslashes of environmental variables to forward slahes.
- * A backslash may be used as an escaped character when doing 'echo'.
- * This leads to an unexpected behavior.
- */
-static void
-env_slashify(void)
-{
-	/*
-	 * PATH and TMPDIR are used by OS/2 as well. That is, they may
-	 * have backslashes as a directory separator.
-	 * BEGINLIBPATH and ENDLIBPATH are special variables on OS/2.
-	 */
-	const char *var_list[] = {
-		"PATH",
-		"TMPDIR",
-		"BEGINLIBPATH",
-		"ENDLIBPATH",
-		NULL
-	};
-	const char **var;
-	char *value;
-
-	for (var = var_list; *var; var++) {
-		value = getenv(*var);
-
-		if (value)
-			_fnslashify(value);
-	}
-}
-
 void
 os2_init(int *argcp, const char ***argvp)
 {
 	response(argcp, argvp);
 
 	init_extlibpath();
-	env_slashify();
 
 	if (!isatty(STDIN_FILENO))
 		setmode(STDIN_FILENO, O_BINARY);
diff --git a/var.c b/var.c
index a53fae8..ceabba5 100644
--- a/var.c
+++ b/var.c
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 #include <sys/sysctl.h>
 #endif
 
-__RCSID("$MirOS: src/bin/mksh/var.c,v 1.220 2017/07/26 23:02:28 tg Exp $");
+__RCSID("$MirOS: src/bin/mksh/var.c,v 1.221 2017/10/13 23:34:49 tg Exp $");
 
 /*-
  * Variables
@@ -1294,9 +1294,29 @@ setspec(struct tbl *vp)
 {
 	mksh_ari_u num;
 	char *s;
-	int st;
+	int st = special(vp->name);
 
-	switch ((st = special(vp->name))) {
+#ifdef MKSH_DOSPATH
+	switch (st) {
+	case V_PATH:
+	case V_TMPDIR:
+#ifdef __OS2__
+	case V_BEGINLIBPATH:
+	case V_ENDLIBPATH:
+#endif
+		/* convert backslashes to slashes for convenience */
+		if (!(vp->flag&INTEGER)) {
+			s = str_val(vp);
+			do {
+				if (*s == ord('\\'))
+					*s = '/';
+			} while (*s++);
+		}
+		break;
+	}
+#endif
+
+	switch (st) {
 #ifdef __OS2__
 	case V_BEGINLIBPATH:
 	case V_ENDLIBPATH: