diff --git a/src/helpers.h b/src/helpers.h
index 53bfcf81..418e39b4 100644
--- a/src/helpers.h
+++ b/src/helpers.h
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@
 #ifndef FINIT_HELPERS_H_
 #define FINIT_HELPERS_H_
 
+#include <ctype.h>
 #include <stdarg.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
 #include <sys/resource.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/ttydefaults.h>	/* Not included by default in musl libc */
@@ -114,6 +116,45 @@ static inline int dprint(int fd, const char *s, size_t len)
 	return rc;
 }
 
+static inline char *fgetval(char *line, const char *key, char *sep)
+{
+	char *ptr, *str, *copy;
+	size_t len;
+
+	str = copy = strdup(line);
+	if (!copy)
+		return NULL;
+
+	ptr = strsep(&str, sep);
+	if (ptr && strcmp(ptr, key)) {
+	fail:
+		free(copy);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	ptr = strsep(&str, sep);
+	if (!ptr)
+		goto fail;
+
+	if (*ptr == '"' || *ptr == '\'') {
+		char *end = &ptr[strlen(ptr) - 1];
+		char q = *ptr;
+
+		while (end > ptr && isspace(*end))
+			*end-- = 0;
+
+		if (*end == q) {
+			*end = 0;
+			ptr++;
+		}
+	}
+
+	len = strlen(ptr) + 1;
+	memmove(copy, ptr, len);
+
+	return realloc(copy, len);
+}
+
 #endif /* FINIT_HELPERS_H_ */
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/initctl.c b/src/initctl.c
index 4cef6de6..9f0420b0 100644
--- a/src/initctl.c
+++ b/src/initctl.c
@@ -1363,32 +1363,6 @@ static int cmd_parse(int argc, char *argv[], struct cmd *command)
 	return command[0].cb(NULL); /* default cmd */
 }
 
-static char *fgetval(char *line, const char *key, char *sep)
-{
-	char *ptr, *str, *copy;
-	size_t len;
-
-	str = copy = strdup(line);
-	if (!copy)
-		return NULL;
-
-	ptr = strsep(&str, sep);
-	if (ptr && strcmp(ptr, key)) {
-	fail:
-		free(copy);
-		return NULL;
-	}
-
-	ptr = strsep(&str, sep);
-	if (!ptr)
-		goto fail;
-
-	len = strlen(ptr) + 1;
-	memmove(copy, ptr, len);
-
-	return realloc(copy, len);
-}
-
 static void cleanup(void)
 {
 	if (finit_conf)