diff --git a/src/util.c b/src/util.c
index 460d5f4a..2f4735b8 100644
--- a/src/util.c
+++ b/src/util.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <ctype.h>		/* isprint() */
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <string.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <sys/sysinfo.h>	/* sysinfo() */
 #include <lite/lite.h>		/* strlcat() */
@@ -45,6 +46,35 @@ char *progname(char *arg0)
        return prognm;
 }
 
+int strtobytes(char *arg)
+{
+	int mod = 0, bytes;
+	size_t pos;
+
+	if (!arg)
+		return -1;
+
+	pos = strspn(arg, "0123456789");
+	if (arg[pos] != 0) {
+		if (arg[pos] == 'G')
+			mod = 3;
+		else if (arg[pos] == 'M')
+			mod = 2;
+		else if (arg[pos] == 'k')
+			mod = 1;
+		else
+			return -1;
+
+		arg[pos] = 0;
+	}
+
+	bytes = atoi(arg);
+	while (mod--)
+		bytes *= 1000;
+
+	return bytes;
+}
+
 void do_sleep(unsigned int sec)
 {
 	while ((sec = sleep(sec)))
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 952f410e..26659b33 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ extern char *prognm;
 #include <lite/conio.h>
 
 char *progname     (char *arg0);
+int   strtobytes   (char *arg);
 void  do_sleep     (unsigned int sec);
 
 long  jiffies      (void);