fix several problems with config parser:

 a bug where it underflows the string
 a bug where it never frees parser_t struct
make read_config() return 0 if parser is NULL,
 make config_close() accept and ignore NULL parser -
 eliminates many if() blocks
reverse the sense of parser bit flags - negative flags
 are harder to grok.
hexdump: revert the change to use config parser, it is BIGGER
 and also requires additional quirks in parser
*: explicitly use PARSER_NORMAL instead of 0

function                                             old     new   delta
login_main                                          1575    1596     +21
config_close                                          18      29     +11
bbunpack                                             383     391      +8
qgravechar                                           106     109      +3
rtnl_tab_initialize                                  121     117      -4
expand                                              1697    1693      -4
man_main                                             717     712      -5
nameif_main                                          674     668      -6
hexdump_main                                         597     591      -6
read_config                                          217     209      -8
dnsd_main                                           1478    1470      -8
sysctl_main                                          203     189     -14
config_open2                                          44      25     -19
make_device                                         1177    1141     -36
config_read                                          597     549     -48
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(add/remove: 0/0 grow/shrink: 4/11 up/down: 43/-158)         Total: -115 bytes

18 files changed, 163 insertions, 145 deletions

diff --git a/include/libbb.h b/include/libbb.h
index 47fcdf08b..48cbd90c0 100644
--- a/include/libbb.h
+++ b/include/libbb.h
@@ -998,15 +998,20 @@ int bb_parse_mode(const char* s, mode_t* theMode) FAST_FUNC;
  * Config file parser
  */
 enum {
-        PARSE_VANILLA        = 0x00000000, // trim line, collapse delimiters, warn and continue if less than mintokens
-        PARSE_DONT_REDUCE    = 0x00010000, // do not treat consecutive delimiters as one
-        PARSE_DONT_TRIM      = 0x00020000, // do not trim line of leading and trailing delimiters
-        PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY = 0x00040000, // last token takes whole remainder of the line
-//      PARSE_DONT_NULL      = 0x00080000, // do not set tokens[] to NULL
-        PARSE_MIN_DIE        = 0x00100000, // die if less tokens found
+        PARSE_COLLAPSE  = 0x00010000, // treat consecutive delimiters as one
+        PARSE_TRIM      = 0x00020000, // trim leading and trailing delimiters
+// TODO: COLLAPSE and TRIM seem to always go in pair
+        PARSE_GREEDY    = 0x00040000, // last token takes entire remainder of the line
+        PARSE_MIN_DIE   = 0x00100000, // die if < min tokens found
         // keep a copy of current line
-        PARSE_KEEP_COPY      = 0x00200000 * ENABLE_DEBUG_CROND_OPTION,
-        PARSE_ESCAPE         = 0x00400000, // process escape sequences in tokens
+        PARSE_KEEP_COPY = 0x00200000 * ENABLE_DEBUG_CROND_OPTION,
+//      PARSE_ESCAPE    = 0x00400000, // process escape sequences in tokens
+        // NORMAL is:
+        // * remove leading and trailing delimiters and collapse
+        //   multiple delimiters into one
+        // * warn and continue if less than mintokens delimiters found
+        // * grab everything into last token
+        PARSE_NORMAL    = PARSE_COLLAPSE | PARSE_TRIM | PARSE_GREEDY,
 };
 typedef struct parser_t {
         FILE *fp;
diff --git a/init/init.c b/init/init.c
index 884603af3..e02773cc0 100644
--- a/init/init.c
+++ b/init/init.c
@@ -701,13 +701,13 @@ static void parse_inittab(void)
                 new_init_action(ASKFIRST, bb_default_login_shell, VC_4);
                 /* sysinit */
                 new_init_action(SYSINIT, INIT_SCRIPT, "");
-
                 return;
         }
         /* optional_tty:ignored_runlevel:action:command
          * Delims are not to be collapsed and need exactly 4 tokens
          */
-        while (config_read(parser, token, 4, 0, "#:", PARSE_DONT_TRIM|PARSE_DONT_REDUCE|PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 4, 0, "#:",
+                                PARSE_NORMAL & ~(PARSE_TRIM | PARSE_COLLAPSE))) {
                 int action;
                 char *tty = token[0];
 
diff --git a/libbb/parse_config.c b/libbb/parse_config.c
index 83dc997f6..ace6f3ad3 100644
--- a/libbb/parse_config.c
+++ b/libbb/parse_config.c
@@ -14,8 +14,9 @@ int parse_main(int argc, char **argv) MAIN_EXTERNALLY_VISIBLE;
 int parse_main(int argc UNUSED_PARAM, char **argv)
 {
         const char *delims = "# \t";
-        unsigned flags = 0;
+        unsigned flags = PARSE_NORMAL;
         int mintokens = 0, ntokens = 128;
+
         opt_complementary = "-1:n+:m+:f+";
         getopt32(argv, "n:m:d:f:", &ntokens, &mintokens, &delims, &flags);
         //argc -= optind;
@@ -61,13 +62,15 @@ Typical usage:
 
 parser_t* FAST_FUNC config_open2(const char *filename, FILE* FAST_FUNC (*fopen_func)(const char *path))
 {
-        parser_t *parser = xzalloc(sizeof(parser_t));
-        /* empty file configures nothing */
-        parser->fp = fopen_func(filename);
-        if (parser->fp)
-                return parser;
-        free(parser);
-        return NULL;
+        FILE* fp;
+        parser_t *parser;
+
+        fp = fopen_func(filename);
+        if (!fp)
+                return NULL;
+        parser = xzalloc(sizeof(*parser));
+        parser->fp = fp;
+        return parser;
 }
 
 parser_t* FAST_FUNC config_open(const char *filename)
@@ -87,41 +90,53 @@ static void config_free_data(parser_t *const parser)
 
 void FAST_FUNC config_close(parser_t *parser)
 {
-        config_free_data(parser);
-        fclose(parser->fp);
+        if (parser) {
+                config_free_data(parser);
+                fclose(parser->fp);
+                free(parser);
+        }
 }
 
 /*
-1. Read a line from config file. If nothing to read then bail out returning 0.
-   Handle continuation character. Advance lineno for each physical line. Cut comments.
-2. if PARSE_DONT_TRIM is not set (default) skip leading and cut trailing delimiters, if any.
+0. If parser is NULL return 0.
+1. Read a line from config file. If nothing to read then return 0.
+   Handle continuation character. Advance lineno for each physical line.
+   Discard everything past comment characher.
+2. if PARSE_TRIM is set (default), remove leading and trailing delimiters.
 3. If resulting line is empty goto 1.
-4. Look for first delimiter. If PARSE_DONT_REDUCE or PARSE_DONT_TRIM is set then pin empty token.
-5. Else (default) if number of seen tokens is equal to max number of tokens (token is the last one)
-   and PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY is set then pin the remainder of the line as the last token.
-   Else (token is not last or PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY is not set) just replace first delimiter with '\0'
-   thus delimiting token and pin it.
-6. Advance line pointer past the end of token. If number of seen tokens is less than required number
-   of tokens then goto 4.
-7. Control the number of seen tokens is not less the min number of tokens. Die if condition is not met.
+4. Look for first delimiter. If !PARSE_COLLAPSE or !PARSE_TRIM is set then
+   remember the token as empty.
+5. Else (default) if number of seen tokens is equal to max number of tokens
+   (token is the last one) and PARSE_GREEDY is set then the remainder
+   of the line is the last token.
+   Else (token is not last or PARSE_GREEDY is not set) just replace
+   first delimiter with '\0' thus delimiting the token.
+6. Advance line pointer past the end of token. If number of seen tokens
+   is less than required number of tokens then goto 4.
+7. Check the number of seen tokens is not less the min number of tokens.
+   Complain or die otherwise depending on PARSE_MIN_DIE.
 8. Return the number of seen tokens.
 
-mintokens > 0 make config_read() exit with error message if less than mintokens
+mintokens > 0 make config_read() print error message if less than mintokens
 (but more than 0) are found. Empty lines are always skipped (not warned about).
 */
 #undef config_read
 int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const char *delims)
 {
         char *line, *q;
-        char comment = *delims++;
+        char comment;
         int ii;
-        int ntokens = flags & 0xFF;
-        int mintokens = (flags & 0xFF00) >> 8;
+        int ntokens;
+        int mintokens;
+
+        comment = *delims++;
+        ntokens = flags & 0xFF;
+        mintokens = (flags & 0xFF00) >> 8;
 
  again:
-        // N.B. this could only be used in read-in-one-go version, or when tokens use xstrdup(). TODO
-        //if (!parser->lineno || !(flags & PARSE_DONT_NULL))
-                memset(tokens, 0, sizeof(tokens[0]) * ntokens);
+        memset(tokens, 0, sizeof(tokens[0]) * ntokens);
+        if (!parser)
+                return 0;
         config_free_data(parser);
 
         while (1) {
@@ -142,20 +157,20 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
                         line[--ii] = '\0';
 //TODO: add xmalloc_fgetline-like iface but with appending to existing str
                         q = xmalloc_fgetline(parser->fp);
-                        if (q) {
-                                parser->lineno++;
-                                line = xasprintf("%s%s", line, q);
-                                free(q);
-                        }
+                        if (!q)
+                                break;
+                        parser->lineno++;
+                        line = xasprintf("%s%s", line, q);
+                        free(q);
                 }
-                // comments mean EOLs
+                // discard comments
                 if (comment) {
                         q = strchrnul(line, comment);
                         *q = '\0';
                         ii = q - line;
                 }
                 // skip leading and trailing delimiters
-                if (!(flags & PARSE_DONT_TRIM)) {
+                if (flags & PARSE_TRIM) {
                         // skip leading
                         int n = strspn(line, delims);
                         if (n) {
@@ -177,7 +192,6 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
                 // skip empty line
                 free(line);
         }
-
         // non-empty line found, parse and return the number of tokens
 
         // store line
@@ -190,14 +204,15 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
         ntokens--; // now it's max allowed token no
         // N.B. non-empty remainder is also a token,
         // so if ntokens <= 1, we just return the whole line
-        // N.B. if PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY is set the remainder of the line is stuck to the last token
-        for (ii = 0; *line && ii <= ntokens; ) {
+        // N.B. if PARSE_GREEDY is set the remainder of the line is stuck to the last token
+        ii = 0;
+        while (*line && ii <= ntokens) {
                 //bb_info_msg("L[%s]", line);
                 // get next token
-                // at the last token and need greedy token ->
-                if ((flags & PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY) && (ii == ntokens)) {
+                // at last token and need greedy token ->
+                if ((flags & PARSE_GREEDY) && (ii == ntokens)) {
                         // skip possible delimiters
-                        if (!(flags & PARSE_DONT_REDUCE))
+                        if (flags & PARSE_COLLAPSE)
                                 line += strspn(line, delims);
                         // don't cut the line
                         q = line + strlen(line);
@@ -208,10 +223,11 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
                                 *q++ = '\0';
                 }
                 // pin token
-                if ((flags & (PARSE_DONT_REDUCE|PARSE_DONT_TRIM)) || *line) {
+                if (!(flags & (PARSE_COLLAPSE | PARSE_TRIM)) || *line) {
                         //bb_info_msg("N[%d] T[%s]", ii, line);
                         tokens[ii++] = line;
                         // process escapes in token
+#if 0 // unused so far
                         if (flags & PARSE_ESCAPE) {
                                 char *s = line;
                                 while (*s) {
@@ -224,6 +240,7 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
                                 }
                                 *line = '\0';
                         }
+#endif
                 }
                 line = q;
                 //bb_info_msg("A[%s]", line);
@@ -234,6 +251,7 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, unsigned flags, const
                                 parser->lineno, ii, mintokens);
                 if (flags & PARSE_MIN_DIE)
                         xfunc_die();
+                ntokens++;
                 goto again;
         }
 
diff --git a/loginutils/login.c b/loginutils/login.c
index 5a75ed218..8732b99f1 100644
--- a/loginutils/login.c
+++ b/loginutils/login.c
@@ -139,20 +139,17 @@ static ALWAYS_INLINE void die_if_nologin(void) {}
 #if ENABLE_FEATURE_SECURETTY && !ENABLE_PAM
 static int check_securetty(void)
 {
-        char *buf;
-        int ret = 1;
+        char *buf = (char*)"/etc/securetty"; /* any non-NULL is ok */
         parser_t *parser = config_open2("/etc/securetty", fopen_for_read);
-        /* N.B. A missing securetty file is not an error. */
-        if (parser) {
-                while (config_read(parser, &buf, 1, 1, "# \t", 0)) {
-                        if (strcmp(buf, short_tty) == 0)
-                                break;
-                }
-                config_close(parser);
-                // buf != NULL here iff config file was empty (OK) or buf equals short_tty (OK)
-                ret = buf != NULL;
+        while (config_read(parser, &buf, 1, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
+                if (strcmp(buf, short_tty) == 0)
+                        break;
+                buf = NULL;
         }
-        return ret;
+        config_close(parser);
+        /* buf != NULL here if config file was not found, empty
+         * or line was found which equals short_tty */
+        return buf != NULL;
 }
 #else
 static ALWAYS_INLINE int check_securetty(void) { return 1; }
diff --git a/miscutils/crond.c b/miscutils/crond.c
index b3a06a376..2f0bf6ea8 100644
--- a/miscutils/crond.c
+++ b/miscutils/crond.c
@@ -469,11 +469,15 @@ static void SynchronizeFile(const char *fileName)
                 file->cf_User = xstrdup(fileName);
                 pline = &file->cf_LineBase;
 
-                while (--maxLines
-                 && (n = config_read(parser, tokens, 6, 1, "# \t", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY|PARSE_KEEP_COPY))
-                ) {
+                while (1) {
                         CronLine *line;
 
+                        if (!--maxLines)
+                                break;
+                        n = config_read(parser, tokens, 6, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL | PARSE_KEEP_COPY);
+                        if (!n)
+                                break;
+
                         if (DebugOpt)
                                 crondlog(LVL5 "user:%s entry:%s", fileName, parser->data);
 
@@ -488,7 +492,7 @@ static void SynchronizeFile(const char *fileName)
                         /* check if a minimum of tokens is specified */
                         if (n < 6)
                                 continue;
-                        *pline = line = xzalloc(sizeof(CronLine));
+                        *pline = line = xzalloc(sizeof(*line));
                         /* parse date ranges */
                         ParseField(file->cf_User, line->cl_Mins, 60, 0, NULL, tokens[0]);
                         ParseField(file->cf_User, line->cl_Hrs, 24, 0, NULL, tokens[1]);
diff --git a/miscutils/fbsplash.c b/miscutils/fbsplash.c
index 6357f78ea..f8289c3d1 100644
--- a/miscutils/fbsplash.c
+++ b/miscutils/fbsplash.c
@@ -288,10 +288,10 @@ static void init(const char *cfg_filename)
                 "DEBUG\0"
 #endif
                 ;
-
         char *token[2];
         parser_t *parser = config_open2(cfg_filename, xfopen_stdin);
-        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "#=", PARSE_MIN_DIE)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "#=",
+                                    (PARSE_NORMAL | PARSE_MIN_DIE) & ~(PARSE_TRIM | PARSE_COLLAPSE))) {
                 unsigned val = xatoi_u(token[1]);
                 int i = index_in_strings(param_names, token[0]);
                 if (i < 0)
diff --git a/miscutils/man.c b/miscutils/man.c
index 7ef5941a1..adb85b81c 100644
--- a/miscutils/man.c
+++ b/miscutils/man.c
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ int man_main(int argc UNUSED_PARAM, char **argv)
         char *cur_path, *cur_sect;
         int count_mp, cur_mp;
         int opt, not_found;
+        char *token[2];
 
         opt_complementary = "-1"; /* at least one argument */
         opt = getopt32(argv, "+aw");
diff --git a/modutils/modprobe-small.c b/modutils/modprobe-small.c
index 1654cc52d..63be9aadb 100644
--- a/modutils/modprobe-small.c
+++ b/modutils/modprobe-small.c
@@ -491,7 +491,7 @@ static int already_loaded(const char *name)
         int ret = 0;
         char *s;
         parser_t *parser = config_open2("/proc/modules", xfopen_for_read);
-        while (config_read(parser, &s, 1, 1, "# \t", 0)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, &s, 1, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL & ~PARSE_GREEDY)) {
                 if (strcmp(s, name) == 0) {
                         ret = 1;
                         break;
diff --git a/networking/dnsd.c b/networking/dnsd.c
index efb5cfba7..e8dcb404b 100644
--- a/networking/dnsd.c
+++ b/networking/dnsd.c
@@ -106,43 +106,41 @@ static void undot(uint8_t * rip)
  */
 static void dnsentryinit(void)
 {
+        char *token[2];
         parser_t *parser;
         struct dns_entry *m, *prev;
 
         prev = dnsentry = NULL;
         parser = config_open(fileconf);
-        if (parser) {
-                char *token[2];
-                while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", 0)) {
-                        unsigned int a,b,c,d;
-                        /*
-                         * Assumes all host names are lower case only
-                         * Hostnames with more than one label are not handled correctly.
-                         * Presently the dot is copied into name without
-                         * converting to a length/string substring for that label.
-                         */
-//                      if (!token[1] || sscanf(token[1], ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, &a, &b, &c, &d) != 4)
-                        if (sscanf(token[1], ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, &a, &b, &c, &d) != 4)
-                                continue;
-
-                        m = xzalloc(sizeof(*m));
-                        /*m->next = NULL;*/
-                        sprintf(m->ip, ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, a, b, c, d);
-                        sprintf(m->rip, ".%u.%u.%u.%u", d, c, b, a);
-                        undot((uint8_t*)m->rip);
-                        convname(m->name, (uint8_t*)token[0]);
-
-                        if (OPT_verbose)
-                                fprintf(stderr, "\tname:%s, ip:%s\n", &(m->name[1]), m->ip);
-
-                        if (prev == NULL)
-                                dnsentry = m;
-                        else
-                                prev->next = m;
-                        prev = m;
-                }
-                config_close(parser);
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
+                unsigned a, b, c, d;
+                /*
+                 * Assumes all host names are lower case only
+                 * Hostnames with more than one label are not handled correctly.
+                 * Presently the dot is copied into name without
+                 * converting to a length/string substring for that label.
+                 */
+//              if (!token[1] || sscanf(token[1], ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, &a, &b, &c, &d) != 4)
+                if (sscanf(token[1], ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, &a, &b, &c, &d) != 4)
+                        continue;
+
+                m = xzalloc(sizeof(*m));
+                /*m->next = NULL;*/
+                sprintf(m->ip, ".%u.%u.%u.%u"+1, a, b, c, d);
+                sprintf(m->rip, ".%u.%u.%u.%u", d, c, b, a);
+                undot((uint8_t*)m->rip);
+                convname(m->name, (uint8_t*)token[0]);
+
+                if (OPT_verbose)
+                        fprintf(stderr, "\tname:%s, ip:%s\n", &(m->name[1]), m->ip);
+
+                if (prev == NULL)
+                        dnsentry = m;
+                else
+                        prev->next = m;
+                prev = m;
         }
+        config_close(parser);
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/networking/hostname.c b/networking/hostname.c
index dd2a20689..48e70db91 100644
--- a/networking/hostname.c
+++ b/networking/hostname.c
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ static void do_sethostname(char *s, int isfile)
                 return;
         if (isfile) {
                 parser_t *parser = config_open2(s, xfopen_for_read);
-                while (config_read(parser, &s, 1, 1, "# \t", 0)) {
+                while (config_read(parser, &s, 1, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL & ~PARSE_GREEDY)) {
                         do_sethostname(s, 0);
                 }
                 if (ENABLE_FEATURE_CLEAN_UP)
diff --git a/networking/libiproute/rt_names.c b/networking/libiproute/rt_names.c
index 1a2d52e86..e4d10613b 100644
--- a/networking/libiproute/rt_names.c
+++ b/networking/libiproute/rt_names.c
@@ -20,9 +20,7 @@ static void rtnl_tab_initialize(const char *file, const char **tab, int size)
 {
         char *token[2];
         parser_t *parser = config_open2(file, fopen_for_read);
-        if (!parser)
-                return;
-        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", 0)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
                 int id = bb_strtou(token[0], NULL, 0);
                 if (id < 0 || id > size) {
                         bb_error_msg("database %s is corrupted at line %d",
diff --git a/networking/nameif.c b/networking/nameif.c
index 5a3bd606f..12c08f13b 100644
--- a/networking/nameif.c
+++ b/networking/nameif.c
@@ -160,13 +160,11 @@ int nameif_main(int argc, char **argv)
                         prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, ifname, *argv++);
                 }
         } else {
+                char *tokens[2];
                 struct parser_t *parser = config_open(fname);
-                if (parser) {
-                        char *tokens[2];
-                        while (config_read(parser, tokens, 2, 2, "# \t", 0))
-                                prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, tokens[0], tokens[1]);
-                        config_close(parser);
-                }
+                while (config_read(parser, tokens, 2, 2, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL))
+                        prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, tokens[0], tokens[1]);
+                config_close(parser);
         }
 
         ctl_sk = xsocket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
diff --git a/networking/udhcp/files.c b/networking/udhcp/files.c
index 264a98899..ff5847d25 100644
--- a/networking/udhcp/files.c
+++ b/networking/udhcp/files.c
@@ -318,10 +318,7 @@ void read_config(const char *file)
                 keywords[i].handler(keywords[i].def, keywords[i].var);
 
         parser = config_open(file);
-        if (!parser)
-                return;
-
-        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
                 for (k = keywords, i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(keywords); k++, i++) {
                         if (!strcasecmp(token[0], k->keyword)) {
                                 if (!k->handler(token[1], k->var)) {
diff --git a/procps/sysctl.c b/procps/sysctl.c
index 3fe6f6f3e..79f0074c9 100644
--- a/procps/sysctl.c
+++ b/procps/sysctl.c
@@ -95,10 +95,7 @@ static int sysctl_preload_file_and_exit(const char *filename)
         parser_t *parser;
 
         parser = config_open(filename);
-        if (!parser)
-                return 1;
-
-        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t=", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY)) { // TODO: ';' is comment char too
+        while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "# \t=", PARSE_NORMAL)) { // TODO: ';' is comment char too
 //              if (!token[1]) {
 //                      bb_error_msg(WARN_BAD_LINE, filename, parser->lineno);
 //              } else {
diff --git a/selinux/sestatus.c b/selinux/sestatus.c
index 1351600c8..eca557e4c 100644
--- a/selinux/sestatus.c
+++ b/selinux/sestatus.c
@@ -54,10 +54,7 @@ static void read_config(char **pc, int npc, char **fc, int nfc)
         pc[0] = fc[0] = NULL;
 
         parser = config_open("/etc/sestatus.conf");
-        if (!parser)
-                return;
-
-        while (config_read(parser, &buf, 1, 1, "# \t", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, &buf, 1, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
                 if (strcmp(buf, "[process]") == 0) {
                         section = 1;
                 } else if (strcmp(buf, "[files]") == 0) {
diff --git a/testsuite/parse.tests b/testsuite/parse.tests
index 06be8d2b9..f1ee7b830 100755
--- a/testsuite/parse.tests
+++ b/testsuite/parse.tests
@@ -5,20 +5,24 @@
 
 . testing.sh
 
-NO_REDUCE=65536
-NO_TRIM=131072
-GREEDY=262144
+COLLAPSE=$(( 0x00010000))
+TRIM=$((     0x00020000))
+GREEDY=$((   0x00040000))
+MIN_DIE=$((  0x00100000))
+KEEP_COPY=$((0x00200000))
+ESCAPE=$((   0x00400000))
+NORMAL=$((   COLLAPSE | TRIM | GREEDY))
 
 # testing "description" "command" "result" "infile" "stdin"
 
-testing "mdev.conf" \
-        "parse -n 4 -m 3 -f $GREEDY -" \
+testing "parse mdev.conf" \
+        "parse -n 4 -m 3 -f $((NORMAL)) -" \
         "[sda][0:0][644][@echo @echo TEST]\n" \
         "-" \
         " sda 0:0 644 @echo @echo TEST # echo trap\n"
 
-testing "notrim" \
-        "parse -n 4 -m 3 -f $(($GREEDY+$NO_TRIM)) -" \
+testing "parse notrim" \
+        "parse -n 4 -m 3 -f $((NORMAL - TRIM - COLLAPSE)) -" \
         "[][sda][0:0][644 @echo @echo TEST ]\n" \
         "-" \
         " sda 0:0 644 @echo @echo TEST \n"
@@ -49,12 +53,12 @@ cat >$FILE.res <<EOF
 [/dev/cdrom][/cdrom][iso9660][ro,user,noauto,nohide][0][0]
 [/dev/hdb5][/redhat][ext2][rw,root,noauto,nohide][0][0]
 [/dev/hdb6][/win2home][ntfs][rw,root,noauto,nohide][0][0]
-[/dev/hdb7][/win2skul][ntfs][rw,root,noauto,nohide][none][0]
+[/dev/hdb7][/win2skul][ntfs][rw,root,noauto,nohide][none][0             0]
 [none][/dev/pts][devpts][gid=5,mode=620][0][0]
 [none][/proc][proc][defaults][0][0]
 EOF
 
-testing "polluted fstab" \
+testing "parse polluted fstab" \
         "parse -n 6 -m 6 $FILE" \
         "`cat $FILE.res`\n" \
         "" \
@@ -74,8 +78,8 @@ cat >$FILE.res <<EOF
 [][][shutdown][/sbin/swapoff -a]
 EOF
 
-testing "inittab from examples" \
-        "parse -n 4 -m 4 -f $(($GREEDY+$NO_TRIM)) -d'#:' $FILE" \
+testing "parse inittab from examples" \
+        "parse -n 4 -m 4 -f $((NORMAL - TRIM - COLLAPSE)) -d'#:' $FILE" \
         "`cat $FILE.res`\n" \
         "" \
         ""
@@ -94,7 +98,7 @@ cat >$FILE.res <<EOF
 [option][lease][864000]
 EOF
 
-testing "udhcpd.conf from examples" \
+testing "parse udhcpd.conf from examples" \
         "parse -n 127 $FILE" \
         "`cat $FILE.res`\n" \
         "" \
diff --git a/util-linux/hexdump.c b/util-linux/hexdump.c
index 8ac12f082..48edd70a9 100644
--- a/util-linux/hexdump.c
+++ b/util-linux/hexdump.c
@@ -16,11 +16,19 @@
 
 static void bb_dump_addfile(dumper_t *dumper, char *name)
 {
-        parser_t *parser = config_open2(name, xfopen_for_read);
-        while (config_read(parser, &name, 1, 1, "# \t", 0)) {
-                bb_dump_add(dumper, name);
+        char *p;
+        FILE *fp;
+        char *buf;
+
+        fp = xfopen_for_read(name);
+        while ((buf = xmalloc_fgetline(fp)) != NULL) {
+                p = skip_whitespace(buf);
+                if (*p && (*p != '#')) {
+                        bb_dump_add(dumper, p);
+                }
+                free(buf);
         }
-        config_close(parser);
+        fclose(fp);
 }
 
 static const char *const add_strings[] = {
diff --git a/util-linux/mdev.c b/util-linux/mdev.c
index f6440b190..d0d010382 100644
--- a/util-linux/mdev.c
+++ b/util-linux/mdev.c
@@ -107,10 +107,7 @@ static void make_device(char *path, int delete)
         parser = config_open2("/etc/mdev.conf", fopen_for_read);
 
         /* If we have config file, look up user settings */
-        if (!parser)
-                goto end_parse;
-
-        while (config_read(parser, tokens, 4, 3, "# \t", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY)) {
+        while (config_read(parser, tokens, 4, 3, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL)) {
                 regmatch_t off[1 + 9*ENABLE_FEATURE_MDEV_RENAME_REGEXP];
                 char *val;
 
@@ -244,7 +241,6 @@ static void make_device(char *path, int delete)
         } /* end of "while line is read from /etc/mdev.conf" */
 
         config_close(parser);
- end_parse:
 #endif /* ENABLE_FEATURE_MDEV_CONF */
 
         if (!delete && sscanf(dev_maj_min, "%u:%u", &major, &minor) == 2) {