diff --git a/include/libbb.h b/include/libbb.h
index c124b1a..aafdfa3 100644
--- a/include/libbb.h
+++ b/include/libbb.h
@@ -995,7 +995,7 @@
 	char *line, *data;
 	int lineno;
 } parser_t;
-FILE* config_open(parser_t *parser, const char *filename) FAST_FUNC;
+parser_t* config_open(const char *filename) FAST_FUNC;
 /* TODO: add define magic to collapse ntokens/mintokens/comment into one int param */
 int config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, int ntokens, int mintokens, const char *delims, char comment) FAST_FUNC;
 void config_close(parser_t *parser) FAST_FUNC;
diff --git a/libbb/parse_config.c b/libbb/parse_config.c
index f070992..70f933f 100644
--- a/libbb/parse_config.c
+++ b/libbb/parse_config.c
@@ -31,44 +31,42 @@
 
 */
 
-FILE* FAST_FUNC config_open(parser_t *parser, const char *filename)
+parser_t* FAST_FUNC config_open(const char *filename)
 {
-	// empty file configures nothing!
+	parser_t *parser = xzalloc(sizeof(parser_t));
+	/* empty file configures nothing */
 	parser->fp = fopen_or_warn(filename, "r");
-	if (!parser->fp)
-		return parser->fp;
-
-	// init parser
-	parser->line = NULL;
-	parser->lineno = 0;
-
-	return parser->fp;
+	if (parser->fp)
+		return parser;
+	config_close (parser);
+	if (ENABLE_FEATURE_CLEAN_UP)
+	  free(parser);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
-void FAST_FUNC config_close(parser_t *parser)
+static void config_free_data(parser_t *const parser)
 {
 	free(parser->line);
 	free(parser->data);
+	parser->line = parser->data = NULL;
+}
+void FAST_FUNC config_close(parser_t *parser)
+{
+	config_free_data(parser);
 	fclose(parser->fp);
 }
 
-int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, int ntokens, int mintokens, const char *delims, char comment)
+int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, int ntokens, int mintokens, const char*delims,char comment)
 {
 	char *line, *q;
-	int token_num, len;
-	int noreduce = (ntokens < 0); // do not treat subsequent delimiters as one delimiter
-
-	if (ntokens < 0)
+	int ii;
+	/* do not treat subsequent delimiters as one delimiter */
+	bool noreduce = (ntokens < 0);
+	if (noreduce)
 		ntokens = -ntokens;
 
-	// nullify tokens
 	memset(tokens, 0, sizeof(void *) * ntokens);
-
-	// free used line
-	free(parser->line);
-	parser->line = NULL;
-	free(parser->data);
-	parser->data = NULL;
+	config_free_data(parser);
 
 	while (1) {
 		int n;
@@ -82,13 +80,13 @@
 		parser->lineno++;
 		// handle continuations. Tito's code stolen :)
 		while (1) {
-			len = strlen(line);
-			if (!len)
-				goto free_and_cont;
-			if (line[len - 1] != '\\')
+			ii = strlen(line);
+			if (!ii)
+				goto next_line;
+			if (line[ii - 1] != '\\')
 				break;
 			// multi-line object
-			line[--len] = '\0';
+			line[--ii] = '\0';
 //TODO: add xmalloc_fgetline-like iface but with appending to existing str
 			q = xmalloc_fgetline(parser->fp);
 			if (q) {
@@ -101,34 +99,35 @@
 		if (comment) {
 			q = strchrnul(line, comment);
 			*q = '\0';
-			len = q - line;
+			ii = q - line;
 		}
 		// skip leading delimiters
 		n = strspn(line, delims);
 		if (n) {
-			len -= n;
+			ii -= n;
 			strcpy(line, line + n);
 		}
-		if (len)
+		if (ii)
 			break;
-		// skip empty lines
- free_and_cont:
+
+ next_line:
+		/* skip empty line */
 		free(line);
 	}
 
 	// non-empty line found, parse and return
 
 	// store line
-	parser->line = line = xrealloc(line, len + 1);
+	parser->line = line = xrealloc(line, ii + 1);
 	parser->data = xstrdup(line);
 
 	// now split line to tokens
 //TODO: discard consecutive delimiters?
-	token_num = 0;
+	ii = 0;
 	ntokens--; // now it's max allowed token no
 	while (1) {
 		// get next token
-		if (token_num == ntokens)
+		if (ii == ntokens)
 			break;
 		q = line + strcspn(line, delims);
 		if (!*q)
@@ -136,20 +135,20 @@
 		// pin token
 		*q++ = '\0';
 		if (noreduce || *line) {
-			tokens[token_num++] = line;
-//bb_error_msg("L[%d] T[%s]", token_num, line);
+			tokens[ii++] = line;
+//bb_info_msg("L[%d] T[%s]\n", ii, line);
 		}
 		line = q;
- 	}
+	}
 
 	// non-empty remainder is also a token,
 	// so if ntokens <= 1, we just return the whole line
 	if (noreduce || *line)
-		tokens[token_num++] = line;
+		tokens[ii++] = line;
 
-	if (token_num < mintokens)
+	if (ii < mintokens)
 		bb_error_msg_and_die("bad line %u: %d tokens found, %d needed",
-				parser->lineno, token_num, mintokens);
+				parser->lineno, ii, mintokens);
 
-	return token_num;
+	return ii;
 }
diff --git a/miscutils/crond.c b/miscutils/crond.c
index 41f1517..d8423cf 100644
--- a/miscutils/crond.c
+++ b/miscutils/crond.c
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@
 
 static void SynchronizeFile(const char *fileName)
 {
-	struct parser_t parser;
+	struct parser_t *parser;
 	struct stat sbuf;
 	int maxLines;
 	char *tokens[6];
@@ -455,12 +455,13 @@
 		return;
 
 	DeleteFile(fileName);
-	if (!config_open(&parser, fileName))
+	parser = config_open(fileName);
+	if (!parser)
 		return;
 
 	maxLines = (strcmp(fileName, "root") == 0) ? 65535 : MAXLINES;
 
-	if (fstat(fileno(parser.fp), &sbuf) == 0 && sbuf.st_uid == DaemonUid) {
+	if (fstat(fileno(parser->fp), &sbuf) == 0 && sbuf.st_uid == DaemonUid) {
 		CronFile *file = xzalloc(sizeof(CronFile));
 		CronLine **pline;
 		int n;
@@ -468,11 +469,11 @@
 		file->cf_User = xstrdup(fileName);
 		pline = &file->cf_LineBase;
 
-		while (--maxLines && (n=config_read(&parser, tokens, 6, 0, " \t", '#')) >= 0) {
+		while (--maxLines && (n=config_read(parser, tokens, 6, 0, " \t", '#')) >= 0) {
 			CronLine *line;
 
 			if (DebugOpt) {
-				crondlog(LVL5 "user:%s entry:%s", fileName, parser.data);
+				crondlog(LVL5 "user:%s entry:%s", fileName, parser->data);
 			}
 
 			/* check if line is setting MAILTO= */
@@ -519,7 +520,7 @@
 			crondlog(WARN9 "user %s: too many lines", fileName);
 		}
 	}
-	config_close(&parser);
+	config_close(parser);
 }
 
 static void CheckUpdates(void)
diff --git a/networking/nameif.c b/networking/nameif.c
index c5a715e..291780a 100644
--- a/networking/nameif.c
+++ b/networking/nameif.c
@@ -160,12 +160,12 @@
 			prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, ifname, *argv++);
 		}
 	} else {
-		struct parser_t parser;
-		if (config_open(&parser, fname)) {
+		struct parser_t *parser = config_open(fname);
+		if (parser) {
 			char *tokens[2];
-			while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 2, 2, " \t", '#') >= 0)
+			while (config_read(parser, tokens, 2, 2, " \t", '#') >= 0)
 				prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, tokens[0], tokens[1]);
-			config_close(&parser);
+			config_close(parser);
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/util-linux/mdev.c b/util-linux/mdev.c
index c04410c..f83dd6a 100644
--- a/util-linux/mdev.c
+++ b/util-linux/mdev.c
@@ -94,14 +94,14 @@
 	        type = S_IFBLK;
 
 	if (ENABLE_FEATURE_MDEV_CONF) {
-		parser_t parser;
+		parser_t *parser = config_open("/etc/mdev.conf");
 		char *tokens[5];
 
 		/* If we have config file, look up user settings */
-		if (!config_open(&parser, "/etc/mdev.conf"))
+		if (!parser)
 			goto end_parse;
 
-		while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 4, 3, " \t", '#') >= 0) {
+		while (config_read(parser, tokens, 4, 3, " \t", '#') >= 0) {
 			regmatch_t off[1+9*ENABLE_FEATURE_MDEV_RENAME_REGEXP];
 			char *val;
 
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@
 				const char *s2 = strchr(s, *val);
 
 				if (!s2)
-					bb_error_msg_and_die("bad line %u", parser.lineno);
+					bb_error_msg_and_die("bad line %u", parser->lineno);
 
 				/* Correlate the position in the "@$*" with the delete
 				 * step so that we get the proper behavior:
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@
 			break; /* we found matching line, stop */
 		} /* end of "while line is read from /etc/mdev.conf" */
 
-		config_close(&parser);
+		config_close(parser);
 	}
  end_parse: