diff --git a/libifupdown/config-parser.c b/libifupdown/config-parser.c
index 0e16b70..f533cfb 100644
--- a/libifupdown/config-parser.c
+++ b/libifupdown/config-parser.c
@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ lif_config_parse_file(FILE *fd, const char *filename, struct lif_config_handler
 	while (lif_fgetline(linebuf, sizeof linebuf, fd))
 	{
 		char *bufp = linebuf;
-		char *key = lif_next_token(&bufp);
-		char *value = lif_next_token(&bufp);
+		char *key = lif_next_token_eq(&bufp);
+		char *value = lif_next_token_eq(&bufp);
 
 		lineno++;
 
diff --git a/libifupdown/tokenize.h b/libifupdown/tokenize.h
index fc7e61f..f0aed3d 100644
--- a/libifupdown/tokenize.h
+++ b/libifupdown/tokenize.h
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 #include <ctype.h>
 
 static inline char *
-lif_next_token(char **buf)
+lif_next_token_eq(char **buf)
 {
 	char *out = *buf;
 
@@ -36,4 +36,22 @@ lif_next_token(char **buf)
 	return out;
 }
 
+static inline char *
+lif_next_token(char **buf)
+{
+	char *out = *buf;
+
+	while (*out && isspace(*out))
+		out++;
+
+	char *end = out;
+	while (*end && !isspace(*end))
+		end++;
+
+	*end++ = '\0';
+	*buf = end;
+
+	return out;
+}
+
 #endif