diff --git a/+stdlib/+fileio/extract_zstd.m b/+stdlib/+fileio/extract_zstd.m
index cd8953a..a11359b 100644
--- a/+stdlib/+fileio/extract_zstd.m
+++ b/+stdlib/+fileio/extract_zstd.m
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ function extract_zstd(archive, out_dir)
   extract_zstd_bin(archive, out_dir)
 end
 
-[ret, msg] = stdlib.sys.subprocess_run([exe, "-E", "tar", "xf", archive], "cwd", out_dir);
+[ret, msg] = stdlib.sys.subprocess_run([exe, "-E", "tar", "xf", archive], cwd=out_dir);
 assert(ret == 0, "problem extracting %s   %s", archive, msg)
 
 end
diff --git a/+stdlib/subprocess_run.m b/+stdlib/subprocess_run.m
index 64b5b12..a610856 100644
--- a/+stdlib/subprocess_run.m
+++ b/+stdlib/subprocess_run.m
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 end
 
 [status, stdout, stderr] = stdlib.sys.subprocess_run(cmd_array, ...
-'env', opt.env, 'cwd', opt.cwd, "stdin", opt.stdin);
+                                                                                 env=opt.env, cwd=opt.cwd, stdin=opt.stdin);
 
 if nargout<3
   fprintf(2, stderr)