diff --git a/src/base/system.c b/src/base/system.c
index f200055a7..efef47d83 100644
--- a/src/base/system.c
+++ b/src/base/system.c
@@ -1913,6 +1913,38 @@ void str_clean_whitespaces(char *str_in)
 	}
 }
 
+/* removes leading and trailing spaces */
+void str_clean_whitespaces_simple(char *str_in)
+{
+	char *read = str_in;
+	char *write = str_in;
+
+	/* skip initial whitespace */
+	while(*read == ' ')
+		read++;
+
+	/* end of read string is detected in the loop */
+	while(1)
+	{
+		/* skip whitespace */
+		int found_whitespace = 0;
+		for(; *read == ' ' && !found_whitespace; read++)
+			found_whitespace = 1;
+		/* if not at the end of the string, put a found whitespace here */
+		if(*read)
+		{
+			if(found_whitespace)
+				*write++ = ' ';
+			*write++ = *read++;
+		}
+		else
+		{
+			*write = 0;
+			break;
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 char *str_skip_to_whitespace(char *str)
 {
 	while(*str && (*str != ' ' && *str != '\t' && *str != '\n'))
@@ -1920,6 +1952,13 @@ char *str_skip_to_whitespace(char *str)
 	return str;
 }
 
+const char *str_skip_to_whitespace_const(const char *str)
+{
+	while(*str && (*str != ' ' && *str != '\t' && *str != '\n'))
+		str++;
+	return str;
+}
+
 char *str_skip_whitespaces(char *str)
 {
 	while(*str && (*str == ' ' || *str == '\t' || *str == '\n' || *str == '\r'))
diff --git a/src/base/system.h b/src/base/system.h
index a21e4b811..ed5345d28 100644
--- a/src/base/system.h
+++ b/src/base/system.h
@@ -912,6 +912,18 @@ int str_check_pathname(const char* str);
 */
 void str_clean_whitespaces(char *str);
 
+/*
+	Function: str_clean_whitespaces_simple
+		Removes leading and trailing spaces
+
+	Parameters:
+		str - String to clean up
+
+	Remarks:
+		- The strings are treated as zero-terminated strings.
+*/
+void str_clean_whitespaces_simple(char *str);
+
 /*
 	Function: str_skip_to_whitespace
 		Skips leading non-whitespace characters(all but ' ', '\t', '\n', '\r').
@@ -928,6 +940,12 @@ void str_clean_whitespaces(char *str);
 */
 char *str_skip_to_whitespace(char *str);
 
+/*
+	Function: str_skip_to_whitespace_const
+		See str_skip_to_whitespace.
+*/
+const char *str_skip_to_whitespace_const(const char *str);
+
 /*
 	Function: str_skip_whitespaces
 		Skips leading whitespace characters(' ', '\t', '\n', '\r').