diff --git a/include/linux/ctype.h b/include/linux/ctype.h
index 6dec944..a3d6ee0 100644
--- a/include/linux/ctype.h
+++ b/include/linux/ctype.h
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ extern const unsigned char _ctype[];
 #define islower(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_L)) != 0)
 #define isprint(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_P|_U|_L|_D|_SP)) != 0)
 #define ispunct(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_P)) != 0)
+/* Note: isspace() must return false for %NUL-terminator */
 #define isspace(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_S)) != 0)
 #define isupper(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_U)) != 0)
 #define isxdigit(c)	((__ismask(c)&(_D|_X)) != 0)
diff --git a/include/linux/string.h b/include/linux/string.h
index b850886..168dad1 100644
--- a/include/linux/string.h
+++ b/include/linux/string.h
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ extern char * strnchr(const char *, size_t, int);
 #ifndef __HAVE_ARCH_STRRCHR
 extern char * strrchr(const char *,int);
 #endif
+extern char * __must_check skip_spaces(const char *);
 extern char * __must_check strstrip(char *);
 #ifndef __HAVE_ARCH_STRSTR
 extern char * strstr(const char *,const char *);
diff --git a/lib/string.c b/lib/string.c
index e96421a..3a912a4 100644
--- a/lib/string.c
+++ b/lib/string.c
@@ -338,6 +338,20 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(strnchr);
 #endif
 
 /**
+ * skip_spaces - Removes leading whitespace from @s.
+ * @s: The string to be stripped.
+ *
+ * Returns a pointer to the first non-whitespace character in @s.
+ */
+char *skip_spaces(const char *str)
+{
+	while (isspace(*str))
+		++str;
+	return (char *)str;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(skip_spaces);
+
+/**
  * strstrip - Removes leading and trailing whitespace from @s.
  * @s: The string to be stripped.
  *
@@ -360,10 +374,7 @@ char *strstrip(char *s)
 		end--;
 	*(end + 1) = '\0';
 
-	while (*s && isspace(*s))
-		s++;
-
-	return s;
+	return skip_spaces(s);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(strstrip);