diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-core-internal.h b/libnm-core/nm-core-internal.h
index f9ae42ecd..d7cb47bf2 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-core-internal.h
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-core-internal.h
@@ -121,6 +121,11 @@ gboolean    _nm_utils_string_in_list   (const char *str,
 
 gssize      _nm_utils_strv_find_first (char **list, gssize len, const char *needle);
 
+char **_nm_utils_strv_cleanup (char **strv,
+                               gboolean strip_whitespace,
+                               gboolean skip_empty,
+                               gboolean skip_repeated);
+
 char **     _nm_utils_strsplit_set (const char *str,
                                     const char *delimiters,
                                     int max_tokens);
diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
index f9325e2a4..875882f13 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
@@ -483,6 +483,36 @@ _nm_utils_strv_find_first (char **list, gssize len, const char *needle)
 	return -1;
 }
 
+char **
+_nm_utils_strv_cleanup (char **strv,
+                        gboolean strip_whitespace,
+                        gboolean skip_empty,
+                        gboolean skip_repeated)
+{
+	guint i, j;
+
+	if (!strv || !*strv)
+		return strv;
+
+	if (strip_whitespace) {
+		for (i = 0; strv[i]; i++)
+			g_strstrip (strv[i]);
+	}
+	if (!skip_empty && !skip_repeated)
+		return strv;
+	j = 0;
+	for (i = 0; strv[i]; i++) {
+		if (   (skip_empty && !*strv[i])
+		    || (skip_repeated && _nm_utils_strv_find_first (strv, j, strv[i]) >= 0))
+			g_free (strv[i]);
+		else
+			strv[j++] = strv[i];
+	}
+	strv[j] = NULL;
+	return strv;
+}
+
+
 gboolean
 _nm_utils_string_slist_validate (GSList *list, const char **valid_values)
 {