fix several problems with config parser:
 a bug where it underflows the string
 a bug where it never frees parser_t struct
make read_config() return 0 if parser is NULL,
 make config_close() accept and ignore NULL parser -
 eliminates many if() blocks
reverse the sense of parser bit flags - negative flags
 are harder to grok.
hexdump: revert the change to use config parser, it is BIGGER
 and also requires additional quirks in parser
*: explicitly use PARSER_NORMAL instead of 0

function                                             old     new   delta
login_main                                          1575    1596     +21
config_close                                          18      29     +11
bbunpack                                             383     391      +8
qgravechar                                           106     109      +3
rtnl_tab_initialize                                  121     117      -4
expand                                              1697    1693      -4
man_main                                             717     712      -5
nameif_main                                          674     668      -6
hexdump_main                                         597     591      -6
read_config                                          217     209      -8
dnsd_main                                           1478    1470      -8
sysctl_main                                          203     189     -14
config_open2                                          44      25     -19
make_device                                         1177    1141     -36
config_read                                          597     549     -48
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(add/remove: 0/0 grow/shrink: 4/11 up/down: 43/-158)         Total: -115 bytes
diff --git a/miscutils/crond.c b/miscutils/crond.c
index b3a06a3..2f0bf6e 100644
--- a/miscutils/crond.c
+++ b/miscutils/crond.c
@@ -469,11 +469,15 @@
 		file->cf_User = xstrdup(fileName);
 		pline = &file->cf_LineBase;
 
-		while (--maxLines
-		 && (n = config_read(parser, tokens, 6, 1, "# \t", PARSE_LAST_IS_GREEDY|PARSE_KEEP_COPY))
-		) {
+		while (1) {
 			CronLine *line;
 
+			if (!--maxLines)
+				break;
+			n = config_read(parser, tokens, 6, 1, "# \t", PARSE_NORMAL | PARSE_KEEP_COPY);
+			if (!n)
+				break;
+
 			if (DebugOpt)
 				crondlog(LVL5 "user:%s entry:%s", fileName, parser->data);
 
@@ -488,7 +492,7 @@
 			/* check if a minimum of tokens is specified */
 			if (n < 6)
 				continue;
-			*pline = line = xzalloc(sizeof(CronLine));
+			*pline = line = xzalloc(sizeof(*line));
 			/* parse date ranges */
 			ParseField(file->cf_User, line->cl_Mins, 60, 0, NULL, tokens[0]);
 			ParseField(file->cf_User, line->cl_Hrs, 24, 0, NULL, tokens[1]);
diff --git a/miscutils/fbsplash.c b/miscutils/fbsplash.c
index 6357f78..f8289c3 100644
--- a/miscutils/fbsplash.c
+++ b/miscutils/fbsplash.c
@@ -288,10 +288,10 @@
 		"DEBUG\0"
 #endif
 		;
-
 	char *token[2];
 	parser_t *parser = config_open2(cfg_filename, xfopen_stdin);
-	while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "#=", PARSE_MIN_DIE)) {
+	while (config_read(parser, token, 2, 2, "#=",
+				    (PARSE_NORMAL | PARSE_MIN_DIE) & ~(PARSE_TRIM | PARSE_COLLAPSE))) {
 		unsigned val = xatoi_u(token[1]);
 		int i = index_in_strings(param_names, token[0]);
 		if (i < 0)
diff --git a/miscutils/man.c b/miscutils/man.c
index 7ef5941..adb85b8 100644
--- a/miscutils/man.c
+++ b/miscutils/man.c
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@
 	char *cur_path, *cur_sect;
 	int count_mp, cur_mp;
 	int opt, not_found;
+	char *token[2];
 
 	opt_complementary = "-1"; /* at least one argument */
 	opt = getopt32(argv, "+aw");