diff --git a/include/lib/util_str.h b/include/lib/util_str.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c8a32deb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/lib/util_str.h
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/**
+ * @defgroup util_str_h util_str: String functions
+ * @{
+ * @brief Manipulate and work with strings
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM Corp. 2025
+ *
+ * s390-tools is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.
+ */
+
+#ifndef LIB_UTIL_STR_H
+#define LIB_UTIL_STR_H
+
+void util_str_rm_whitespace(const char *src, char *dest);
+
+#endif /** LIB_UTIL_STR_H @} */
diff --git a/libutil/util_str.c b/libutil/util_str.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..71f585e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libutil/util_str.c
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+ * util - Utility function library
+ *
+ * Manipulate and work with strings
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM Corp. 2025
+ *
+ * s390-tools is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.
+ */
+
+#include <ctype.h>
+
+#include "lib/util_str.h"
+
+/**
+ * Copy characters from \a src to \a dest, omitting all blank characters
+ * (spaces and tabs). The resulting string in \a dest will be NUL terminated.
+ *
+ * @param[in]  src   Source string
+ * @param[out] dest  Destination buffer
+ */
+void util_str_rm_whitespace(const char *src, char *dest)
+{
+	while (*src != '\0') {
+		if (!isblank(*src)) {
+			*dest = *src;
+			dest++;
+		}
+		src++;
+	}
+	*dest = '\0';
+}
diff --git a/zdsfs/zdsfs.c b/zdsfs/zdsfs.c
index 5c66fb4d..4c7adb52 100644
--- a/zdsfs/zdsfs.c
+++ b/zdsfs/zdsfs.c
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 
 #include "lib/libzds.h"
 #include "lib/util_libc.h"
+#include "lib/util_str.h"
 #include "lib/zt_common.h"
 
 #define COMP "zdsfs: "
@@ -1369,18 +1370,6 @@ static void zdsfs_process_device_file(const char *devfile)
 	free(buffer);
 }
 
-void remove_whitespace(const char *s, char *t)
-{
-	while (*s != '\0') {
-		if (!isblank(*s)) {
-			*t = *s;
-			t++;
-		}
-		s++;
-	}
-	*t = '\0';
-}
-
 static void zdsfs_process_config_file(const char *config)
 {
 	char line[MAX_LINE_LENGTH];
@@ -1403,7 +1392,7 @@ static void zdsfs_process_config_file(const char *config)
 
 		/* remove all whitespaces */
 		tmp = util_malloc(strlen(line) + 1);
-		remove_whitespace(line, tmp);
+		util_str_rm_whitespace(line, tmp);
 
 		key = strtok(tmp, delimiter);
 		if (strcmp(key, "restserver")  == 0) {
@@ -1496,7 +1485,7 @@ static int zdsfs_process_dataset_conf(const char *config)
 		linecount++;
 		/* remove all whitespaces */
 		tmp = util_malloc(strlen(line) + 1);
-		remove_whitespace(line, tmp);
+		util_str_rm_whitespace(line, tmp);
 		/* skip empty lines */
 		if (*tmp == '\n' || *tmp == '#') {
 			free(tmp);