diff --git a/docbook/release-notes.adoc b/docbook/release-notes.adoc
index e76c4fa195..a8e9d3c085 100644
--- a/docbook/release-notes.adoc
+++ b/docbook/release-notes.adoc
@@ -56,6 +56,11 @@ They previously shipped with Npcap 1.20.
   Also the timestamp format now allows the second-fractions to be placed anywhere in the timestamp and it will be stored with
   nanosecond instead of microsecond precision.
 
+* Display filter literal strings can now be specified using raw string syntax,
+  identical to raw strings in the Python programming language. This is useful
+  to avoid the complexity of using two levels of character escapes with regular
+  expressions.
+
 * Significant RTP Player redesign and improvements (see Wireshark User Documentation,
   https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChTelPlayingCalls.html[Playing VoIP Calls] and
   https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/_rtp.html#ChTelRtpPlayer[RTP Player Window])
diff --git a/epan/dfilter/dfilter-int.h b/epan/dfilter/dfilter-int.h
index 9d53353954..648892aed6 100644
--- a/epan/dfilter/dfilter-int.h
+++ b/epan/dfilter/dfilter-int.h
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ typedef struct {
 typedef struct {
 	dfwork_t *dfw;
 	GString* quoted_string;
+	gboolean raw_string;
 	gboolean in_set;	/* true if parsing set elements for the membership operator */
 } df_scanner_state_t;
 
diff --git a/epan/dfilter/dfilter.c b/epan/dfilter/dfilter.c
index 850c27bdc0..59924eb239 100644
--- a/epan/dfilter/dfilter.c
+++ b/epan/dfilter/dfilter.c
@@ -240,6 +240,7 @@ dfilter_compile(const gchar *text, dfilter_t **dfp, gchar **err_msg)
 	state.dfw = dfw;
 	state.quoted_string = NULL;
 	state.in_set = FALSE;
+	state.raw_string = FALSE;
 
 	df_set_extra(&state, scanner);
 
diff --git a/epan/dfilter/scanner.l b/epan/dfilter/scanner.l
index f04c2ee561..fbef746c9d 100644
--- a/epan/dfilter/scanner.l
+++ b/epan/dfilter/scanner.l
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ static void mark_lval_deprecated(const char *s);
 	return SCAN_FAILED;
 }
 
-\042				{
+[rR]{0,1}\042			{
 	/* start quote of a quoted string */
 	/* The example of how to scan for strings was taken from
 	the flex 2.5.4 manual, from the section "Start Conditions".
@@ -238,6 +238,21 @@ static void mark_lval_deprecated(const char *s);
 		about to set it in the next line. */
 	}
 	yyextra->quoted_string = g_string_new("");
+	if (yytext[0] == 'r' || yytext[0] == 'R') {
+		/*
+		 * This is a raw string (like in Python). Rules: 1) The two
+		 * escape sequences are \\ and \". 2) Backslashes are
+		 * preserved. 3) Double quotes in the string must be escaped.
+		 * Corollary: Strings cannot end with an odd number of
+		 * backslashes.
+		 * Example: r"a\b\x12\"\\" is the string (including the implicit NUL terminator)
+		 * {'a', '\\', 'b', '\\', 'x', '1', '2', '\\', '"', '\\'. '\\', '\0'}
+		 */
+		yyextra->raw_string = TRUE;
+	}
+	else {
+		yyextra->raw_string = FALSE;
+	}
 }
 
 <DQUOTE><<EOF>>				{
@@ -263,28 +278,43 @@ static void mark_lval_deprecated(const char *s);
 
 <DQUOTE>\\[0-7]{1,3} {
 	/* octal sequence */
-	unsigned long result;
-	result = strtoul(yytext + 1, NULL, 8);
-	if (result > 0xff) {
-		g_string_free(yyextra->quoted_string, TRUE);
-		yyextra->quoted_string = NULL;
-		dfilter_fail(yyextra->dfw, "%s is larger than 255.", yytext);
-		return SCAN_FAILED;
+	if (yyextra->raw_string) {
+		g_string_append(yyextra->quoted_string, yytext);
+	}
+	else {
+		unsigned long result;
+		result = strtoul(yytext + 1, NULL, 8);
+		if (result > 0xff) {
+			g_string_free(yyextra->quoted_string, TRUE);
+			yyextra->quoted_string = NULL;
+			dfilter_fail(yyextra->dfw, "%s is larger than 255.", yytext);
+			return SCAN_FAILED;
+		}
+		g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, (gchar) result);
 	}
-	g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, (gchar) result);
 }
 
 <DQUOTE>\\x[[:xdigit:]]{1,2} {
 	/* hex sequence */
-	unsigned long result;
-	result = strtoul(yytext + 2, NULL, 16);
-	g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, (gchar) result);
+	if (yyextra->raw_string) {
+		g_string_append(yyextra->quoted_string, yytext);
+	}
+	else {
+		unsigned long result;
+		result = strtoul(yytext + 2, NULL, 16);
+		g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, (gchar) result);
+	}
 }
 
 
 <DQUOTE>\\.				{
 	/* escaped character */
-	g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, yytext[1]);
+	if (yyextra->raw_string) {
+		g_string_append(yyextra->quoted_string, yytext);
+	}
+	else {
+		g_string_append_c(yyextra->quoted_string, yytext[1]);
+	}
 }
 
 <DQUOTE>[^\\\042]+			{
diff --git a/epan/dfilter/semcheck.c b/epan/dfilter/semcheck.c
index dc3a947f9d..6245f7fd1f 100644
--- a/epan/dfilter/semcheck.c
+++ b/epan/dfilter/semcheck.c
@@ -409,6 +409,8 @@ dfilter_g_regex_from_string(dfwork_t *dfw, const char *s)
 	 */
 	cflags = (GRegexCompileFlags)(cflags | G_REGEX_RAW);
 
+	DebugLog(("Compile regex pattern: '%s'\n", s));
+
 	pcre = g_regex_new(
 			s,			/* pattern */
 			cflags,			/* Compile options */