diff --git a/dracut-kdump.sh b/dracut-kdump.sh
index b75c2a5..2ae1c7c 100755
--- a/dracut-kdump.sh
+++ b/dracut-kdump.sh
@@ -144,7 +144,6 @@ read_kdump_conf()
     while read config_opt config_val;
     do
         # remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-        config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
         case "$config_opt" in
         dracut_args)
             config_val=$(get_dracut_args_target "$config_val")
@@ -160,7 +159,7 @@ read_kdump_conf()
             add_dump_code "dump_ssh $SSH_KEY_LOCATION $config_val"
             ;;
         esac
-    done < $KDUMP_CONF
+    done <<< "$(read_strip_comments $KDUMP_CONF)"
 }
 
 fence_kdump_notify()
diff --git a/dracut-module-setup.sh b/dracut-module-setup.sh
index db7cd23..2998c72 100755
--- a/dracut-module-setup.sh
+++ b/dracut-module-setup.sh
@@ -501,7 +501,6 @@ kdump_install_conf() {
     while read _opt _val;
     do
         # remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-        _val=$(strip_comments $_val)
         case "$_opt" in
         raw)
             _pdev=$(persistent_policy="by-id" kdump_get_persistent_dev $_val)
@@ -529,7 +528,7 @@ kdump_install_conf() {
             dracut_install "${_val%%[[:blank:]]*}"
             ;;
         esac
-    done < /etc/kdump.conf
+    done <<< "$(read_strip_comments /etc/kdump.conf)"
 
     default_dump_target_install_conf
 
diff --git a/kdump-lib-initramfs.sh b/kdump-lib-initramfs.sh
index d6c01d1..608dc6e 100755
--- a/kdump-lib-initramfs.sh
+++ b/kdump-lib-initramfs.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ get_kdump_confs()
     while read config_opt config_val;
     do
         # remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-        config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
         case "$config_opt" in
             path)
                 KDUMP_PATH="$config_val"
@@ -84,7 +83,7 @@ get_kdump_confs()
                 esac
             ;;
         esac
-    done < $KDUMP_CONF
+    done <<< "$(read_strip_comments $KDUMP_CONF)"
 
     if [ -z "$CORE_COLLECTOR" ]; then
         CORE_COLLECTOR="$DEFAULT_CORE_COLLECTOR"
diff --git a/kdump-lib.sh b/kdump-lib.sh
index 36a1043..4feb7d0 100755
--- a/kdump-lib.sh
+++ b/kdump-lib.sh
@@ -61,6 +61,14 @@ strip_comments()
     echo $@ | sed -e 's/\(.*\)#.*/\1/'
 }
 
+# Read from kdump config file stripping all comments
+read_strip_comments()
+{
+    # strip heading spaces, and print any content starting with
+    # neither space or #, and strip everything after #
+    sed -n -e "s/^\s*\([^# \t][^#]\+\).*/\1/gp" $1
+}
+
 # Check if fence kdump is configured in Pacemaker cluster
 is_pcs_fence_kdump()
 {
diff --git a/kdumpctl b/kdumpctl
index 72f9d7e..08c5667 100755
--- a/kdumpctl
+++ b/kdumpctl
@@ -245,7 +245,6 @@ check_config()
 			;;
 		raw|ext2|ext3|ext4|minix|btrfs|xfs|nfs|ssh|sshkey|path|core_collector|kdump_post|kdump_pre|extra_bins|extra_modules|failure_action|default|final_action|force_rebuild|force_no_rebuild|dracut_args|fence_kdump_args|fence_kdump_nodes)
 			# remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-			config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
 			[ -z "$config_val" ] && {
 				echo "Invalid kdump config value for option $config_opt."
 				return 1;
@@ -260,7 +259,7 @@ check_config()
 			return 1;
 			;;
 		esac
-	done < $KDUMP_CONFIG_FILE
+	done <<< "$(read_strip_comments $KDUMP_CONFIG_FILE)"
 
 	check_failure_action_config || return 1
 	check_final_action_config || return 1
@@ -676,7 +675,6 @@ check_ssh_config()
 		case "$config_opt" in
 		sshkey)
 			# remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-			config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
 			if [ -f "$config_val" ]; then
 				# canonicalize the path
 				SSH_KEY_LOCATION=$(/usr/bin/readlink -m $config_val)
@@ -685,17 +683,15 @@ check_ssh_config()
 			fi
 			;;
 		path)
-			config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
 			SAVE_PATH=$config_val
 			;;
 		ssh)
-			config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
 			DUMP_TARGET=$config_val
 			;;
 		*)
 			;;
 		esac
-	done < $KDUMP_CONFIG_FILE
+	done <<< "$(read_strip_comments $KDUMP_CONFIG_FILE)"
 
 	#make sure they've configured kdump.conf for ssh dumps
 	local SSH_TARGET=`echo -n $DUMP_TARGET | sed -n '/.*@/p'`
diff --git a/mkdumprd b/mkdumprd
index a99d5f1..cf3533f 100644
--- a/mkdumprd
+++ b/mkdumprd
@@ -392,7 +392,6 @@ fi
 while read config_opt config_val;
 do
     # remove inline comments after the end of a directive.
-    config_val=$(strip_comments $config_val)
     case "$config_opt" in
     extra_modules)
         extra_modules="$extra_modules $config_val"
@@ -446,7 +445,7 @@ do
     *)
         ;;
     esac
-done <<< "$(grep -v -e "^#" -e "^$" $conf_file)"
+done <<< "$(read_strip_comments $conf_file)"
 
 handle_default_dump_target