How to run programs with arguments like 'arg=val' (e.g. dd) in rc shell (Linux version ported from Plan9 OS)?

I'm trying to use rc shell (Linux port from Plan9 OS) and get 'syntax error' messages when using programs with arguments like **arg=val**. ; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null syntax error ; ls --color=auto syntax error My guess is that rc shell sees **=** sign and treats the statement as variable assignment, not a program run. May be there's no dd program or other programs using this type of arguments in Plan9. But how can I use it in Linux where they are widely used? I tried escaping **=** like dd if\=... of\=, it didn't help. I tried quoting arguments like dd 'if=/dev/zero' 'of=/dev/null' 'bs=1M' 'count=1' and it worked. But it's not very comfortable. Is there any other more handy way? I'm using rc shell from Ubuntu 11.10 repository: package version 1.7.1-3ubuntu1.