diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index bb4d878c1a..81cd353a5a 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Bugfixes:
   automount points even when the original .automount file did not exist
   anymore. Only the .mount unit was still around.
 
-* ExecStart with unicode characters fails in strv_split_quoted:
+* ExecStart with unicode characters fails in strv_split_extract:
 
           [Service]
           Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
diff --git a/src/basic/env-util.c b/src/basic/env-util.c
index 9517fbc802..4804a67f91 100644
--- a/src/basic/env-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/env-util.c
@@ -550,7 +550,7 @@ char **replace_env_argv(char **argv, char **env) {
                         if (e) {
                                 int r;
 
-                                r = strv_split_quoted(&m, e, EXTRACT_RELAX);
+                                r = strv_split_extract(&m, e, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_RELAX|EXTRACT_QUOTES);
                                 if (r < 0) {
                                         ret[k] = NULL;
                                         strv_free(ret);
diff --git a/src/basic/strv.c b/src/basic/strv.c
index 72964a166a..79a9d8d421 100644
--- a/src/basic/strv.c
+++ b/src/basic/strv.c
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ char **strv_split_newlines(const char *s) {
         return l;
 }
 
-int strv_split_quoted(char ***t, const char *s, ExtractFlags flags) {
+int strv_split_extract(char ***t, const char *s, const char *separators, ExtractFlags flags) {
         size_t n = 0, allocated = 0;
         _cleanup_strv_free_ char **l = NULL;
         int r;
@@ -289,11 +289,12 @@ int strv_split_quoted(char ***t, const char *s, ExtractFlags flags) {
         for (;;) {
                 _cleanup_free_ char *word = NULL;
 
-                r = extract_first_word(&s, &word, NULL, flags|EXTRACT_QUOTES);
+                r = extract_first_word(&s, &word, separators, flags);
                 if (r < 0)
                         return r;
-                if (r == 0)
+                if (r == 0) {
                         break;
+                }
 
                 if (!GREEDY_REALLOC(l, allocated, n + 2))
                         return -ENOMEM;
diff --git a/src/basic/strv.h b/src/basic/strv.h
index fe3dfd245c..954da06fcb 100644
--- a/src/basic/strv.h
+++ b/src/basic/strv.h
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ static inline bool strv_isempty(char * const *l) {
 char **strv_split(const char *s, const char *separator);
 char **strv_split_newlines(const char *s);
 
-int strv_split_quoted(char ***t, const char *s, ExtractFlags flags);
+int strv_split_extract(char ***t, const char *s, const char *separators, ExtractFlags flags);
 
 char *strv_join(char **l, const char *separator);
 char *strv_join_quoted(char **l);
diff --git a/src/journal-remote/journal-remote.c b/src/journal-remote/journal-remote.c
index e3bd76051b..cdcda1cb52 100644
--- a/src/journal-remote/journal-remote.c
+++ b/src/journal-remote/journal-remote.c
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ static int spawn_getter(const char *getter, const char *url) {
         _cleanup_strv_free_ char **words = NULL;
 
         assert(getter);
-        r = strv_split_quoted(&words, getter, 0);
+        r = strv_split_extract(&words, getter, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
         if (r < 0)
                 return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to split getter option: %m");
 
diff --git a/src/locale/localed.c b/src/locale/localed.c
index cb4052fdd5..e9489f04c2 100644
--- a/src/locale/localed.c
+++ b/src/locale/localed.c
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ static int x11_read_data(Context *c) {
                 if (in_section && first_word(l, "Option")) {
                         _cleanup_strv_free_ char **a = NULL;
 
-                        r = strv_split_quoted(&a, l, 0);
+                        r = strv_split_extract(&a, l, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
                         if (r < 0)
                                 return r;
 
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ static int x11_read_data(Context *c) {
                 } else if (!in_section && first_word(l, "Section")) {
                         _cleanup_strv_free_ char **a = NULL;
 
-                        r = strv_split_quoted(&a, l, 0);
+                        r = strv_split_extract(&a, l, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
                         if (r < 0)
                                 return -ENOMEM;
 
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ static int read_next_mapping(const char* filename,
                 if (l[0] == 0 || l[0] == '#')
                         continue;
 
-                r = strv_split_quoted(&b, l, 0);
+                r = strv_split_extract(&b, l, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
                 if (r < 0)
                         return r;
 
diff --git a/src/test/test-strv.c b/src/test/test-strv.c
index 6e3c81395c..53074b4b65 100644
--- a/src/test/test-strv.c
+++ b/src/test/test-strv.c
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ static void test_strv_quote_unquote(const char* const *split, const char *quoted
         assert_se(p);
         assert_se(streq(p, quoted));
 
-        r = strv_split_quoted(&s, quoted, 0);
+        r = strv_split_extract(&s, quoted, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
         assert_se(r == 0);
         assert_se(s);
         STRV_FOREACH(t, s) {
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ static void test_strv_unquote(const char *quoted, char **list) {
         char **t;
         int r;
 
-        r = strv_split_quoted(&s, quoted, 0);
+        r = strv_split_extract(&s, quoted, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
         assert_se(r == 0);
         assert_se(s);
         j = strv_join(s, " | ");
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ static void test_invalid_unquote(const char *quoted) {
         char **s = NULL;
         int r;
 
-        r = strv_split_quoted(&s, quoted, 0);
+        r = strv_split_extract(&s, quoted, WHITESPACE, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
         assert_se(s == NULL);
         assert_se(r == -EINVAL);
 }
@@ -219,6 +219,21 @@ static void test_strv_split(void) {
         }
 }
 
+static void test_strv_split_extract(void) {
+        _cleanup_strv_free_ char **l = NULL;
+        const char *str = ":foo\\:bar::waldo:";
+        int r;
+
+        r = strv_split_extract(&l, str, ":", EXTRACT_DONT_COALESCE_SEPARATORS);
+        assert_se(r == 0);
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[0], ""));
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[1], "foo:bar"));
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[2], ""));
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[3], "waldo"));
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[4], ""));
+        assert_se(streq_ptr(l[5], NULL));
+}
+
 static void test_strv_split_newlines(void) {
         unsigned i = 0;
         char **s;
@@ -583,6 +598,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
         test_invalid_unquote("'x'y'g");
 
         test_strv_split();
+        test_strv_split_extract();
         test_strv_split_newlines();
         test_strv_split_nulstr();
         test_strv_parse_nulstr();