diff --git a/lib/config b/lib/config
index 0baa4cc3c2..a0b9b0a6f6 100644
--- a/lib/config
+++ b/lib/config
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ function merge_config_file {
     local matchgroup=$2
     local configfile=$3
 
+    # note in the awk below, \x27 is ascii for ' -- this avoids
+    # having to do nasty quoting games
     get_meta_section $file $matchgroup $configfile | \
     $CONFIG_AWK_CMD -v configfile=$configfile '
         BEGIN { section = "" }
@@ -95,7 +97,7 @@ function merge_config_file {
         }
         /^[^ \t]+/ {
             split($0, d, " *= *")
-            print "iniset " configfile " " section " " d[1] " \"" d[2] "\""
+            print "iniset " configfile " " section " " d[1] " \x27" d[2] "\x27 "
         }
     ' | while read a; do eval "$a"; done
 
diff --git a/tests/test_config.sh b/tests/test_config.sh
index 2634ce0654..7cf75d0c4f 100755
--- a/tests/test_config.sh
+++ b/tests/test_config.sh
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ attribute=value
 [[test4|\$TEST4_DIR/\$TEST4_FILE]]
 [fff]
 type=new
+
+[[test-quote|test-quote.conf]]
+[foo]
+foo="foo bar" "baz"
 EOF
 
 echo -n "get_meta_section_files: test0 doesn't exist: "
@@ -206,6 +210,15 @@ EXPECT_VAL="
 attribute = value"
 check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
 
+echo -n "merge_config_file test-quote: "
+rm -f test-quote.conf
+merge_config_file test.conf test-quote test-quote.conf
+VAL=$(cat test-quote.conf)
+EXPECT_VAL='
+[foo]
+foo = "foo bar" "baz"'
+check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
+
 echo -n "merge_config_group test4 variable filename: "
 setup_test4
 merge_config_group test.conf test4
@@ -225,5 +238,5 @@ EXPECT_VAL="
 type = new"
 check_result "$VAL" "$EXPECT_VAL"
 
-rm -f test.conf test1c.conf test2a.conf test-space.conf
+rm -f test.conf test1c.conf test2a.conf test-quote.conf test-space.conf
 rm -rf test-etc