diff --git a/variable_grabbler.py b/variable_grabbler.py
index 7c9592c..f856b81 100644
--- a/variable_grabbler.py
+++ b/variable_grabbler.py
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 #!/usr/bin/python2
 
 print """
-Variable Grabbler - version 3.4
--------------------------------"""
+Variable Grabbler - version 4.0_pre1
+------------------------------------"""
 ################################################################
 # Changes in this version:
 #===============================================================
-# * added support for command execution
-# * some internal technicalities that should not impact features
-# * Yes.
+# *"\?" in a variable will now be replaced with a simple ? before
+#  processing
+# *commands are now not run over and over again fi not needed
 #
 
 ################################################################
@@ -35,9 +35,10 @@ config_values = json.loads(config_file.read().decode("utf-8"))
 config_file.close()
 print "Done."
 
+
 print "Working on file: "+sys.argv[1]
 for variable in config_values:
-  print "> "+variable+" => ",
+  print "> "+variable.upper()+" => ",
   file_in = open(sys.argv[1], "r")
   file_content = file_in.read()
   file_in.close()
@@ -48,24 +49,36 @@ for variable in config_values:
     file_replacement.close()
   elif config_values[variable][0] == "exec":
     print "Found array. Executing command instead: " + config_values[variable][1]
-    process = subprocess.Popen(config_values[variable][1], shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
-    stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
-    if process.returncode == 0:
-      print "Process exited normally. Replacing variable with the output from STDOUT..."
-      print_err("Subprocess exited normally.\nThe following error messages were produced:")
-      print_err(stderr)
-      replacement = stdout
+    if variable.upper() in file_content:
+      process = subprocess.Popen(config_values[variable][1], shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+      stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
+      if process.returncode == 0:
+        print "Process exited normally. Replacing variable with the output from STDOUT..."
+        print_err("Subprocess exited normally.\nThe following error messages were produced:")
+        print_err(stderr)
+        replacement = stdout
+      else:
+        print "Process exited abnormally. Exiting. No changes will be made."
+        print_err("Subprocess exited abnormally. Exiting.\nThe following output was produced:")
+        print_err(stdout)
+        print_err("The following error messages were produced:")
+        print_err(stderr)
+        print "Exiting now."
+        sys.exit(2)
     else:
-      print "Process exited abnormally. Exiting. No changes will be made."
-      print_err("Subprocess exited abnormally. Exiting.\nThe following output was produced:")
-      print_err(stdout)
-      print_err("The following error messages were produced:")
-      print_err(stderr)
-      print "Exiting now."
-      sys.exit(2)
+      print variable.upper(),
+      print "was not found in the file. Skipping command execution."
   else:
-    replacement = config_values[variable]
+    replacement = repr(config_values[variable])
     print repr(replacement)
+    # look for variable sections that contain question marks
+    argument_positions = []
+    i = 0
+    while i<len(replacement):
+      if replacement[i] == '?' and (i==0 or not replacement[i-1]=='\\'):
+        argument_positions = argument_positions + [ i ]
+    print "DEBUG: " + argument_positions
+    replacement = replacement.replace("\\?", "?")
   file_out = open(sys.argv[1], "w")
   file_out.write(file_content.decode('utf-8').replace("%" + variable.upper() + "%", replacement).encode('utf-8'))
   file_out.close()