diff --git a/hledger/test/errors/Makefile b/hledger/test/errors/Makefile
index 59a14d240..b026d16d4 100644
--- a/hledger/test/errors/Makefile
+++ b/hledger/test/errors/Makefile
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 HLEDGER ?= hledger
 
-ERRORSCRIPTS=*.j *.timeclock # *.timedot *.csv
+# j, csv, timeclock, timedot files which are executable
+ERRORSCRIPTS := $$(find . -perm +rwx \( -name '*.j' -or -name '*.csv' -or -name '*.timeclock' -or -name '*.timedot' -or -name '*.sh' \))
 
-# Check error messages of hledger in $PATH against current error tests.
+# Check error messages of $HLEDGER against current error tests.
+# A few tests (csvstdinrules.sh) may use "hledger" in $PATH instead of $HLEDGER.
 test:
 	@printf "Running error message tests with hledger $$($(HLEDGER) --version | awk '{print $$2}'):\n"
 	shelltest -w $(HLEDGER) *.test
diff --git a/hledger/test/errors/hledger2shelltest b/hledger/test/errors/hledger2shelltest
index 2ed455fa6..f23d4d976 100755
--- a/hledger/test/errors/hledger2shelltest
+++ b/hledger/test/errors/hledger2shelltest
@@ -21,14 +21,18 @@ TEST=$(echo "$SCRIPT" | sed -E 's/\.[^.]+$//').test
 {
 head -1 "$SCRIPT" | sed -E "s%#!/usr/bin/env -S (.*)%\$\$\$ \1 $SCRIPT%"
 printf ">>>2 /"
-"./$SCRIPT" 2>&1 | sed -E \
-  -e 's%(hledger: Error: ).*/\./(.*)%\1.*\2%' \
-  -e 's%/%\\/%g' \
+./"$SCRIPT" 2>&1 | sed -E \
   -e 's/\^/\\^/g' \
   -e 's/\$/\\$/g' \
+  -e 's/\+/\\+/g' \
+  -e 's/\*/\\*/g' \
+  -e 's/\[/\\[/g' \
+  -e 's/\]/\\]/g' \
   -e 's/\(/\\(/g' \
   -e 's/\)/\\)/g' \
   -e 's/\|/\\|/g' \
+  -e 's%(hledger: Error: ).*/\./(.*)%\1.*\2%' \
+  -e 's%/%\\/%g' \
   | head -c 300
 printf "/\n>>>= 1\n"
 } >"$TEST"