diff --git a/tools/provision/zulip-dev.conf b/tools/provision/zulip-dev.conf
index 77e19b1ff0..778a7f6f35 100644
--- a/tools/provision/zulip-dev.conf
+++ b/tools/provision/zulip-dev.conf
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 [program:zulip-dev]
 ; The VM is behind NAT (right, right?); we listen on all interfaces so port mapping works correctly in Vagrant
-command=bash -c "source /srv/zulip-venv/bin/activate && /srv/zulip/tools/run-dev.py --interface=''"
+command=bash -c "source /srv/zulip-venv/bin/activate && exec /srv/zulip/tools/run-dev.py --interface=''"
 user=vagrant
 redirect_stderr=true
 directory=/srv/zulip/
diff --git a/tools/run-dev-queue-processors b/tools/run-dev-queue-processors
index e65dc68387..3cd5e19f48 100755
--- a/tools/run-dev-queue-processors
+++ b/tools/run-dev-queue-processors
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ from zerver.worker.queue_processors import get_active_worker_queues
 
 queues = get_active_worker_queues()
 
-args = ' '.join(sys.argv[1:])
+args = sys.argv[1:]
 for queue in queues:
-    subprocess.Popen('python manage.py process_queue %s %s' %(args, queue), shell=True)
+    subprocess.Popen(['python', 'manage.py', 'process_queue'] + args + [queue])
diff --git a/tools/run-dev.py b/tools/run-dev.py
index d38bee044e..034433df65 100755
--- a/tools/run-dev.py
+++ b/tools/run-dev.py
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ if options.test:
 else:
     settings_module = "zproject.settings"
 
-manage_args = '--settings=%s' % (settings_module,)
+manage_args = ['--settings=%s' % (settings_module,)]
 os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = settings_module
 
 sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ os.chdir(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
 subprocess.check_call('./tools/clean-repo')
 
 # Watch for handlebars changes.
-subprocess.Popen('./tools/compile-handlebars-templates forever', shell=True)
+subprocess.Popen(['./tools/compile-handlebars-templates', 'forever'])
 
 # Set up a new process group, so that we can later kill run{server,tornado}
 # and all of the processes they spawn.
@@ -74,15 +74,15 @@ os.setpgrp()
 
 # Pass --nostatic because we configure static serving ourselves in
 # zulip/urls.py.
-cmds = ['python manage.py runserver --nostatic %s localhost:%d'
-          % (manage_args, django_port),
-        'python manage.py runtornado %s localhost:%d'
-          % (manage_args, tornado_port),
-        './tools/run-dev-queue-processors %s' % (manage_args),
-        './puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates']
+cmds = [['python', 'manage.py', 'runserver', '--nostatic'] +
+          manage_args + ['localhost:%d' % (django_port,)],
+        ['python', 'manage.py', 'runtornado'] +
+          manage_args + ['localhost:%d' % (tornado_port,)],
+        ['./tools/run-dev-queue-processors'] + manage_args,
+        ['./puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates']]
 
 for cmd in cmds:
-    subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True)
+    subprocess.Popen(cmd)
 
 class Resource(resource.Resource):
     def getChild(self, name, request):