diff --git a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.txt b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.txt
index 3e5aa3a65ae9..1a874a93f49b 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.txt
@@ -236,21 +236,38 @@ trailer.<token>.command::
 	be called to automatically add or modify a trailer with the
 	specified <token>.
 +
-When this option is specified, the behavior is as if a special
-'--trailer <token>=<value>' argument was added at the beginning of
-the "git interpret-trailers" command, where <value> is taken to be the
-standard output of the specified command with any leading and trailing
-whitespace trimmed off.
+When this option is specified, the first occurrence of substring $ARG is
+replaced with the value given to the `interpret-trailer` command for the
+same token. It passes the value through `$ARG`, otherwise this option behaves
+in the same way as 'trailer.<token>.cmd'.
++
+The 'trailer.<token>.command' option has been deprecated due to the fact
+that $ARG in the user's command can only be replaced once and that the
+original way of replacing $ARG was not safe. Now the preferred option is
+'trailer.<token>.cmd', which uses a positional argument to pass the value.
 +
-The first occurrence of substring `$ARG` will be replaced with the
-<value> part of an existing trailer with the same <token>, if any,
-before the command is launched.
+When both 'trailer.<token>.cmd' and 'trailer.<token>.command' are given
+for the same <token>, 'trailer.<token>.cmd' is used and
+'trailer.<token>.command' is ignored.
+
+trailer.<token>.cmd::
+	The command specified by this configuration variable is run
+	with a single argument, which is the <value> part of a
+	`--trailer <token>=<value>` on the command line. The output
+	from the command is then used as the value for the <token>
+	in the resulting trailer.
++
+When this option is specified, the behavior is as if a
+'--trailer <token>=<value>' argument was added at the beginning of
+the "git interpret-trailers" command, the command specified by this
+configuration variable will be called with an empty string as the
+argument.
 +
-If some '<token>=<value>' arguments are also passed on the command
-line, when a 'trailer.<token>.command' is configured, the command is run
-once for each these arguments with the same <token>. And the <value>
-part of these arguments, if any, will be used to replace the first `$ARG`
-string in the command.
+If some '--trailer <token>=<value>' arguments are also passed on the
+command line, when a 'trailer.<token>.cmd' is configured, the command
+is run once for each `--trailer <token>=<value>` on the command line
+with the same <token>. And the <value> part of these arguments, if any,
+will be passed to the command as its first argument.
 
 EXAMPLES
 --------
@@ -333,6 +350,53 @@ subject
 Fix #42
 ------------
 
+* Configure a 'cnt' trailer with a cmd use a global script `gcount`
+to record commit counts of a specified author and show how it works:
++
+------------
+$ cat ~/bin/gcount
+#!/bin/sh
+test -n "$1" && git shortlog -s --author="$1" HEAD || true
+$ git config trailer.cnt.key "Commit-count: "
+$ git config trailer.cnt.ifExists "replace"
+$ git config trailer.cnt.cmd "~/bin/gcount"
+$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="cnt:Junio" <<EOF
+> subject
+> 
+> message
+> 
+> EOF
+subject
+
+message
+
+Commit-count: 22484     Junio C Hamano
+------------
+
+* Configure a 'ref' trailer with a cmd use a global script `glog-grep`
+  to grep last relevant commit from git log in the git repository
+  and show how it works:
++
+------------
+$ cat ~/bin/glog-grep
+#!/bin/sh
+test -n "$1" && git log --grep "$1" --pretty=reference -1 || true
+$ git config trailer.ref.key "Reference-to: "
+$ git config trailer.ref.ifExists "replace"
+$ git config trailer.ref.cmd "~/bin/glog-grep"
+$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="ref:Add copyright notices." <<EOF
+> subject
+> 
+> message
+> 
+> EOF
+subject
+
+message
+
+Reference-to: 8bc9a0c769 (Add copyright notices., 2005-04-07)
+------------
+
 * Configure a 'see' trailer with a command to show the subject of a
   commit that is related, and show how it works:
 +
diff --git a/t/t7513-interpret-trailers.sh b/t/t7513-interpret-trailers.sh
index 6602790b5f4c..68353af3e62e 100755
--- a/t/t7513-interpret-trailers.sh
+++ b/t/t7513-interpret-trailers.sh
@@ -51,6 +51,69 @@ test_expect_success 'setup' '
 	EOF
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'with cmd' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --remove-section trailer.bug" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.key "Bug-maker: " &&
+	git config trailer.bug.ifExists "add" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.cmd "echo \"maybe is\"" &&
+	cat >expected2 <<-EOF &&
+
+	Bug-maker: maybe is
+	Bug-maker: maybe is him
+	Bug-maker: maybe is me
+	EOF
+	git interpret-trailers --trailer "bug: him" --trailer "bug:me" \
+		>actual2 &&
+	test_cmp expected2 actual2
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'with cmd and $1' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --remove-section trailer.bug" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.key "Bug-maker: " &&
+	git config trailer.bug.ifExists "replace" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.cmd "echo \"\$1\" is" &&
+	cat >expected2 <<-EOF &&
+
+	Bug-maker: me is me
+	EOF
+	git interpret-trailers --trailer "bug: him" --trailer "bug:me" \
+		>actual2 &&
+	test_cmp expected2 actual2
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'with cmd and $1 with sh -c' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --remove-section trailer.bug" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.key "Bug-maker: " &&
+	git config trailer.bug.ifExists "replace" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.cmd "sh -c \"echo who is \"\$1\"\"" &&
+	cat >expected2 <<-EOF &&
+
+	Bug-maker: who is me
+	EOF
+	git interpret-trailers --trailer "bug: him" --trailer "bug:me" \
+		>actual2 &&
+	test_cmp expected2 actual2
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'with cmd and $1 with shell script' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --remove-section trailer.bug" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.key "Bug-maker: " &&
+	git config trailer.bug.ifExists "replace" &&
+	git config trailer.bug.cmd "./echoscript" &&
+	cat >expected2 <<-EOF &&
+
+	Bug-maker: who is me
+	EOF
+	cat >echoscript <<-EOF &&
+	#!/bin/sh
+	echo who is "\$1"
+	EOF
+	chmod +x echoscript &&
+	git interpret-trailers --trailer "bug: him" --trailer "bug:me" \
+		>actual2 &&
+	test_cmp expected2 actual2
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'without config' '
 	sed -e "s/ Z\$/ /" >expected <<-\EOF &&
 
@@ -1274,6 +1337,27 @@ test_expect_success 'setup a commit' '
 	git commit -m "Add file a.txt"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'cmd takes precedence over command' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --unset trailer.fix.cmd" &&
+	git config trailer.fix.ifExists "replace" &&
+	git config trailer.fix.cmd "test -n \"\$1\" && git log -1 --oneline --format=\"%h (%aN)\" \
+	--abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 \"\$1\" || true" &&
+	git config trailer.fix.command "git log -1 --oneline --format=\"%h (%s)\" \
+		--abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 \$ARG" &&
+	FIXED=$(git log -1 --oneline --format="%h (%aN)" --abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 HEAD) &&
+	cat complex_message_body >expected2 &&
+	sed -e "s/ Z\$/ /" >>expected2 <<-EOF &&
+		Fixes: $FIXED
+		Acked-by= Z
+		Reviewed-by:
+		Signed-off-by: Z
+		Signed-off-by: A U Thor <author@example.com>
+	EOF
+	git interpret-trailers --trailer "review:" --trailer "fix=HEAD" \
+		<complex_message >actual2 &&
+	test_cmp expected2 actual2
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'with command using $ARG' '
 	git config trailer.fix.ifExists "replace" &&
 	git config trailer.fix.command "git log -1 --oneline --format=\"%h (%s)\" --abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 \$ARG" &&
diff --git a/trailer.c b/trailer.c
index be4e9726421c..bd384befe15b 100644
--- a/trailer.c
+++ b/trailer.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ struct conf_info {
 	char *name;
 	char *key;
 	char *command;
+	char *cmd;
 	enum trailer_where where;
 	enum trailer_if_exists if_exists;
 	enum trailer_if_missing if_missing;
@@ -127,6 +128,7 @@ static void free_arg_item(struct arg_item *item)
 	free(item->conf.name);
 	free(item->conf.key);
 	free(item->conf.command);
+	free(item->conf.cmd);
 	free(item->token);
 	free(item->value);
 	free(item);
@@ -216,18 +218,24 @@ static int check_if_different(struct trailer_item *in_tok,
 	return 1;
 }
 
-static char *apply_command(const char *command, const char *arg)
+static char *apply_command(struct conf_info *conf, const char *arg)
 {
 	struct strbuf cmd = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct child_process cp = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
 	char *result;
 
-	strbuf_addstr(&cmd, command);
-	if (arg)
-		strbuf_replace(&cmd, TRAILER_ARG_STRING, arg);
-
-	strvec_push(&cp.args, cmd.buf);
+	if (conf->cmd) {
+		strbuf_addstr(&cmd, conf->cmd);
+		strvec_push(&cp.args, cmd.buf);
+		if (arg)
+			strvec_push(&cp.args, arg);
+	} else if (conf->command) {
+		strbuf_addstr(&cmd, conf->command);
+		if (arg)
+			strbuf_replace(&cmd, TRAILER_ARG_STRING, arg);
+		strvec_push(&cp.args, cmd.buf);
+	}
 	cp.env = local_repo_env;
 	cp.no_stdin = 1;
 	cp.use_shell = 1;
@@ -247,7 +255,7 @@ static char *apply_command(const char *command, const char *arg)
 
 static void apply_item_command(struct trailer_item *in_tok, struct arg_item *arg_tok)
 {
-	if (arg_tok->conf.command) {
+	if (arg_tok->conf.command || arg_tok->conf.cmd) {
 		const char *arg;
 		if (arg_tok->value && arg_tok->value[0]) {
 			arg = arg_tok->value;
@@ -257,7 +265,7 @@ static void apply_item_command(struct trailer_item *in_tok, struct arg_item *arg
 			else
 				arg = xstrdup("");
 		}
-		arg_tok->value = apply_command(arg_tok->conf.command, arg);
+		arg_tok->value = apply_command(&arg_tok->conf, arg);
 		free((char *)arg);
 	}
 }
@@ -430,6 +438,7 @@ static void duplicate_conf(struct conf_info *dst, const struct conf_info *src)
 	dst->name = xstrdup_or_null(src->name);
 	dst->key = xstrdup_or_null(src->key);
 	dst->command = xstrdup_or_null(src->command);
+	dst->cmd = xstrdup_or_null(src->cmd);
 }
 
 static struct arg_item *get_conf_item(const char *name)
@@ -454,8 +463,8 @@ static struct arg_item *get_conf_item(const char *name)
 	return item;
 }
 
-enum trailer_info_type { TRAILER_KEY, TRAILER_COMMAND, TRAILER_WHERE,
-			 TRAILER_IF_EXISTS, TRAILER_IF_MISSING };
+enum trailer_info_type { TRAILER_KEY, TRAILER_COMMAND, TRAILER_CMD,
+			TRAILER_WHERE, TRAILER_IF_EXISTS, TRAILER_IF_MISSING };
 
 static struct {
 	const char *name;
@@ -463,6 +472,7 @@ static struct {
 } trailer_config_items[] = {
 	{ "key", TRAILER_KEY },
 	{ "command", TRAILER_COMMAND },
+	{ "cmd", TRAILER_CMD },
 	{ "where", TRAILER_WHERE },
 	{ "ifexists", TRAILER_IF_EXISTS },
 	{ "ifmissing", TRAILER_IF_MISSING }
@@ -542,6 +552,11 @@ static int git_trailer_config(const char *conf_key, const char *value, void *cb)
 			warning(_("more than one %s"), conf_key);
 		conf->command = xstrdup(value);
 		break;
+	case TRAILER_CMD:
+		if (conf->cmd)
+			warning(_("more than one %s"), conf_key);
+		conf->cmd = xstrdup(value);
+		break;
 	case TRAILER_WHERE:
 		if (trailer_set_where(&conf->where, value))
 			warning(_("unknown value '%s' for key '%s'"), value, conf_key);
@@ -708,7 +723,7 @@ static void process_command_line_args(struct list_head *arg_head,
 	/* Add an arg item for each configured trailer with a command */
 	list_for_each(pos, &conf_head) {
 		item = list_entry(pos, struct arg_item, list);
-		if (item->conf.command)
+		if (item->conf.cmd || item->conf.command)
 			add_arg_item(arg_head,
 				     xstrdup(token_from_item(item, NULL)),
 				     xstrdup(""),
