diff --git a/helper/strutil/strutil.go b/helper/strutil/strutil.go
index a77e60d15..0da186a7c 100644
--- a/helper/strutil/strutil.go
+++ b/helper/strutil/strutil.go
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ func StrListSubset(super, sub []string) bool {
 	return true
 }
 
-// Parses a comma separated list of strings into a slice of strings.
-// The return slice will be sorted and will not contain duplicate or
-// empty items.
+// ParseDedupAndSortStrings parses a comma separated list of strings
+// into a slice of strings. The return slice will be sorted and will
+// not contain duplicate or empty items.
 func ParseDedupAndSortStrings(input string, sep string) []string {
 	input = strings.TrimSpace(input)
 	parsed := []string{}
@@ -56,9 +56,10 @@ func ParseDedupAndSortStrings(input string, sep string) []string {
 	return RemoveDuplicates(strings.Split(input, sep), false)
 }
 
-// Parses a comma separated list of strings into a slice of strings.
-// The return slice will be sorted and will not contain duplicate or
-// empty items. The values will be converted to lower case.
+// ParseDedupLowercaseAndSortStrings parses a comma separated list of
+// strings into a slice of strings. The return slice will be sorted and
+// will not contain duplicate or empty items. The values will be converted
+// to lower case.
 func ParseDedupLowercaseAndSortStrings(input string, sep string) []string {
 	input = strings.TrimSpace(input)
 	parsed := []string{}
@@ -69,8 +70,8 @@ func ParseDedupLowercaseAndSortStrings(input string, sep string) []string {
 	return RemoveDuplicates(strings.Split(input, sep), true)
 }
 
-// Parses a comma separated list of `<key>=<value>` tuples into a
-// map[string]string.
+// ParseKeyValues parses a comma separated list of `<key>=<value>` tuples
+// into a map[string]string.
 func ParseKeyValues(input string, out map[string]string, sep string) error {
 	if out == nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("'out is nil")
@@ -97,8 +98,8 @@ func ParseKeyValues(input string, out map[string]string, sep string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Parses arbitrary <key,value> tuples. The input can be one of
-// the following:
+// ParseArbitraryKeyValues parses arbitrary <key,value> tuples. The input
+// can be one of the following:
 // * JSON string
 // * Base64 encoded JSON string
 // * Comma separated list of `<key>=<value>` pairs
@@ -144,8 +145,8 @@ func ParseArbitraryKeyValues(input string, out map[string]string, sep string) er
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Parses a `sep`-separated list of strings into a
-// []string.
+// ParseStringSlice parses a `sep`-separated list of strings into a
+// []string with surrounding whitespace removed.
 //
 // The output will always be a valid slice but may be of length zero.
 func ParseStringSlice(input string, sep string) []string {
@@ -157,14 +158,14 @@ func ParseStringSlice(input string, sep string) []string {
 	splitStr := strings.Split(input, sep)
 	ret := make([]string, len(splitStr))
 	for i, val := range splitStr {
-		ret[i] = val
+		ret[i] = strings.TrimSpace(val)
 	}
 
 	return ret
 }
 
-// Parses arbitrary string slice. The input can be one of
-// the following:
+// ParseArbitraryStringSlice parses arbitrary string slice. The input
+// can be one of the following:
 // * JSON string
 // * Base64 encoded JSON string
 // * `sep` separated list of values
@@ -215,8 +216,9 @@ func TrimStrings(items []string) []string {
 	return ret
 }
 
-// Removes duplicate and empty elements from a slice of strings. This also may
-// convert the items in the slice to lower case and returns a sorted slice.
+// RemoveDuplicates removes duplicate and empty elements from a slice of
+// strings. This also may convert the items in the slice to lower case and
+// returns a sorted slice.
 func RemoveDuplicates(items []string, lowercase bool) []string {
 	itemsMap := map[string]bool{}
 	for _, item := range items {
@@ -230,7 +232,7 @@ func RemoveDuplicates(items []string, lowercase bool) []string {
 		itemsMap[item] = true
 	}
 	items = make([]string, 0, len(itemsMap))
-	for item, _ := range itemsMap {
+	for item := range itemsMap {
 		items = append(items, item)
 	}
 	sort.Strings(items)
@@ -260,10 +262,10 @@ func EquivalentSlices(a, b []string) bool {
 
 	// Now we'll build our checking slices
 	var sortedA, sortedB []string
-	for keyA, _ := range mapA {
+	for keyA := range mapA {
 		sortedA = append(sortedA, keyA)
 	}
-	for keyB, _ := range mapB {
+	for keyB := range mapB {
 		sortedB = append(sortedB, keyB)
 	}
 	sort.Strings(sortedA)
@@ -299,6 +301,8 @@ func StrListDelete(s []string, d string) []string {
 	return s
 }
 
+// GlobbedStringsMatch compares item to val with support for a leading and/or
+// trailing wildcard '*' in item.
 func GlobbedStringsMatch(item, val string) bool {
 	if len(item) < 2 {
 		return val == item
diff --git a/helper/strutil/strutil_test.go b/helper/strutil/strutil_test.go
index e0196a660..4efd03488 100644
--- a/helper/strutil/strutil_test.go
+++ b/helper/strutil/strutil_test.go
@@ -423,3 +423,29 @@ func TestStrUtil_RemoveDuplicates(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+func TestStrUtil_ParseStringSlice(t *testing.T) {
+	type tCase struct {
+		input  string
+		sep    string
+		expect []string
+	}
+
+	tCases := []tCase{
+		tCase{"", "", []string{}},
+		tCase{"   ", ",", []string{}},
+		tCase{",   ", ",", []string{"", ""}},
+		tCase{"a", ",", []string{"a"}},
+		tCase{" a, b,   c   ", ",", []string{"a", "b", "c"}},
+		tCase{" a; b;   c   ", ";", []string{"a", "b", "c"}},
+		tCase{" a :: b  ::   c   ", "::", []string{"a", "b", "c"}},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range tCases {
+		actual := ParseStringSlice(tc.input, tc.sep)
+
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(actual, tc.expect) {
+			t.Fatalf("Bad testcase %#v, expected %v, got %v", tc, tc.expect, actual)
+		}
+	}
+}