diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
index ec1a86a63240611ffe99d9c00ee71ba0c43c738f..36787cca928bca2bf86e249da2bdde9fbf0a243d 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@ __all__ = ['imgfmt', 'imgproto', 'test_dir' 'qemu_img', 'qemu_io',
 
 # This will not work if arguments or path contain spaces but is necessary if we
 # want to support the override options that ./check supports.
-qemu_img_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IMG', 'qemu-img').split(' ')
-qemu_io_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IO', 'qemu-io').split(' ')
-qemu_args = os.environ.get('QEMU', 'qemu').split(' ')
+qemu_img_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IMG', 'qemu-img').strip().split(' ')
+qemu_io_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IO', 'qemu-io').strip().split(' ')
+qemu_args = os.environ.get('QEMU', 'qemu').strip().split(' ')
 
 imgfmt = os.environ.get('IMGFMT', 'raw')
 imgproto = os.environ.get('IMGPROTO', 'file')