diff --git a/lib/config b/lib/config
index a0b9b0a6f6..b44e79aa3d 100644
--- a/lib/config
+++ b/lib/config
@@ -96,8 +96,17 @@ function merge_config_file {
             next
         }
         /^[^ \t]+/ {
-            split($0, d, " *= *")
-            print "iniset " configfile " " section " " d[1] " \x27" d[2] "\x27 "
+            # get offset of first '=' in $0
+            eq_idx = index($0, "=")
+            # extract attr & value from $0
+            attr = substr($0, 1, eq_idx - 1)
+            value = substr($0, eq_idx + 1)
+            # only need to strip trailing whitespace from attr
+            sub(/[ \t]*$/, "", attr)
+            # need to strip leading & trailing whitespace from value
+            sub(/^[ \t]*/, "", value)
+            sub(/[ \t]*$/, "", value)
+            print "iniset " configfile " " section " " attr " \x27" value "\x27"
         }
     ' | while read a; do eval "$a"; done
 
diff --git a/tests/test_config.sh b/tests/test_config.sh
index 7cf75d0c4f..6fff29c396 100755
--- a/tests/test_config.sh
+++ b/tests/test_config.sh
@@ -95,6 +95,15 @@ type=new
 [[test-quote|test-quote.conf]]
 [foo]
 foo="foo bar" "baz"
+
+[[test5|test-equals.conf]]
+[DEFAULT]
+drivers = driver=python.import.path.Driver
+
+[[test6|test-strip.conf]]
+[DEFAULT]
+# next line has trailing space
+attr = strip_trailing_space 
 EOF
 
 echo -n "get_meta_section_files: test0 doesn't exist: "
@@ -238,5 +247,25 @@ EXPECT_VAL="
 type = new"
 check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
 
-rm -f test.conf test1c.conf test2a.conf test-quote.conf test-space.conf
+echo -n "merge_config_file test5 equals in value: "
+rm -f test-equals.conf
+merge_config_file test.conf test5 test-equals.conf
+VAL=$(cat test-equals.conf)
+# iniset adds a blank line if it creates the file...
+EXPECT_VAL="
+[DEFAULT]
+drivers = driver=python.import.path.Driver"
+check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
+
+echo -n "merge_config_file test6 value stripped: "
+rm -f test-strip.conf
+merge_config_file test.conf test6 test-strip.conf
+VAL=$(cat test-strip.conf)
+# iniset adds a blank line if it creates the file...
+EXPECT_VAL="
+[DEFAULT]
+attr = strip_trailing_space"
+check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
+
+rm -f test.conf test1c.conf test2a.conf test-quote.conf test-space.conf test-equals.conf test-strip.conf
 rm -rf test-etc