diff --git a/helpers/execembed.go b/helpers/execembed.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0fa7aac8788
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/execembed.go
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package helpers
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"os/exec"
+
+	jww "github.com/spf13/jwalterweatherman"
+)
+
+func Exec(args ...string) string {
+	var out bytes.Buffer
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
+	var arg []string
+	if len(args) == 0 {
+		jww.ERROR.Print("Nothing to execute")
+		return "Nothing to execute"
+	}
+	name := args[0]
+	if len(args) > 1 {
+		arg = args[1 : len(args)-1]
+	}
+	cmd := exec.Command(name, arg...)
+	cmd.Stdout = &out
+	cmd.Stderr = &stderr
+	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
+		jww.ERROR.Print("Error executing", err, stderr.String())
+		return stderr.String()
+	}
+	return out.String()
+}
diff --git a/tpl/template.go b/tpl/template.go
index 3cf983ce035..ee7da443f93 100644
--- a/tpl/template.go
+++ b/tpl/template.go
@@ -831,6 +831,10 @@ func Highlight(in interface{}, lang string) template.HTML {
 	return template.HTML(helpers.Highlight(html.UnescapeString(str), lang))
 }
 
+func Exec(args ...string) template.HTML {
+	return template.HTML(helpers.Exec(args...))
+}
+
 func Markdownify(text string) template.HTML {
 	return template.HTML(helpers.RenderBytes(helpers.RenderingContext{Content: []byte(text), PageFmt: "markdown"}))
 }
@@ -1275,6 +1279,7 @@ func init() {
 		"delimit":     Delimit,
 		"sort":        Sort,
 		"highlight":   Highlight,
+		"exec":        Exec,
 		"add":         func(a, b interface{}) (interface{}, error) { return doArithmetic(a, b, '+') },
 		"sub":         func(a, b interface{}) (interface{}, error) { return doArithmetic(a, b, '-') },
 		"div":         func(a, b interface{}) (interface{}, error) { return doArithmetic(a, b, '/') },