diff --git a/tools/perf/util/string.c b/tools/perf/util/string.c
index 084c3e4e9400355560dab53b0171c532f2743ffe..d28e723e2790e07e8222d2663f413d22e2e2ec29 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/string.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/string.c
@@ -69,18 +69,6 @@ s64 perf_atoll(const char *str)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-/*
- * Helper function for splitting a string into an argv-like array.
- * originally copied from lib/argv_split.c
- */
-static const char *skip_sep(const char *cp)
-{
-	while (*cp && isspace(*cp))
-		cp++;
-
-	return cp;
-}
-
 static const char *skip_arg(const char *cp)
 {
 	while (*cp && !isspace(*cp))
@@ -94,7 +82,7 @@ static int count_argc(const char *str)
 	int count = 0;
 
 	while (*str) {
-		str = skip_sep(str);
+		str = skip_spaces(str);
 		if (*str) {
 			count++;
 			str = skip_arg(str);
@@ -148,7 +136,7 @@ char **argv_split(const char *str, int *argcp)
 	argvp = argv;
 
 	while (*str) {
-		str = skip_sep(str);
+		str = skip_spaces(str);
 
 		if (*str) {
 			const char *p = str;