diff --git a/bin/pt-config-diff b/bin/pt-config-diff
index f9fe1566..79bb4c53 100755
--- a/bin/pt-config-diff
+++ b/bin/pt-config-diff
@@ -844,7 +844,7 @@ sub print_usage {
             $desc .= ".  Optional suffix s=seconds, m=minutes, h=hours, "
                    . "d=days; if no suffix, $s is used.";
          }
-         $desc = join("\n$rpad", grep { $_ } $desc =~ m/(.{0,$rcol})(?:\s+|$)/g);
+         $desc = join("\n$rpad", grep { $_ } $desc =~ m/(.{0,$rcol}(?!\W))(?:\s+|(?<=\W)|$)/g);
          $desc =~ s/ +$//mg;
          if ( $short ) {
             $usage .= sprintf("  --%-${maxs}s -%s  %s\n", $long, $short, $desc);
@@ -2201,8 +2201,8 @@ sub _preprocess_varvals {
    my %vars;
    LINE:
    foreach my $line ( split /\n/, $to_parse ) {
-      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;  # no empty lines
-      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*#/;  # no # comment lines
+      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;   # no empty lines
+      next LINE if $line =~ /^\s*[#;]/; # no # or ; comment lines
 
       if ( $line !~ $re ) {
          PTDEBUG && _d("Line <", $line, "> didn't match $re");
@@ -2213,6 +2213,8 @@ sub _preprocess_varvals {
       
       $var =~ tr/-/_/;
 
+      $var =~ s/\s*#.*$//;
+
       if ( !defined $val ) {
          $val = '';
       }
@@ -2252,15 +2254,24 @@ sub _parse_varvals {
    return \%config, \%duplicates;
 }
 
+my $quote_re = qr/
+   \A             # Start of value
+   (['"])         # Opening quote
+   (.*)           # Value
+   \1             # Closing quote
+   \s*(?:\#.*)?   # End of line comment
+   [\n\r]*\z      # End of value
+/x;
 sub _process_val {
    my ($val) = @_;
-   $val =~ s/
-               \A        # Start of value
-               (['"])    # Opening quote
-               (.*)      # Value
-               \1        # Closing quote
-               [\n\r]*\z # End of value
-            /$2/x;
+
+   if ( $val =~ $quote_re ) {
+      $val = $2;
+   }
+   else {
+      $val =~ s/\s*#.*//;
+   }
+
    if ( my ($num, $factor) = $val =~ m/(\d+)([KMGT])b?$/i ) {
       my %factor_for = (
          k => 1_024,
diff --git a/lib/MySQLConfig.pm b/lib/MySQLConfig.pm
index ac9cd668..20fe8ec7 100644
--- a/lib/MySQLConfig.pm
+++ b/lib/MySQLConfig.pm
@@ -340,8 +340,8 @@ sub _preprocess_varvals {
    my %vars;
    LINE:
    foreach my $line ( split /\n/, $to_parse ) {
-      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;  # no empty lines
-      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*#/;  # no # comment lines
+      next LINE if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;   # no empty lines
+      next LINE if $line =~ /^\s*[#;]/; # no # or ; comment lines
 
       if ( $line !~ $re ) {
          PTDEBUG && _d("Line <", $line, "> didn't match $re");
@@ -354,6 +354,9 @@ sub _preprocess_varvals {
       # but in SHOW VARIABLES they're all like "log_bin".
       $var =~ tr/-/_/;
 
+      # Remove trailing comments
+      $var =~ s/\s*#.*$//;
+
       if ( !defined $val ) {
          $val = '';
       }
@@ -405,15 +408,26 @@ sub _parse_varvals {
    return \%config, \%duplicates;
 }
 
+my $quote_re = qr/
+   \A             # Start of value
+   (['"])         # Opening quote
+   (.*)           # Value
+   \1             # Closing quote
+   \s*(?:\#.*)?   # End of line comment
+   [\n\r]*\z      # End of value
+/x;
 sub _process_val {
    my ($val) = @_;
-   $val =~ s/
-               \A        # Start of value
-               (['"])    # Opening quote
-               (.*)      # Value
-               \1        # Closing quote
-               [\n\r]*\z # End of value
-            /$2/x;
+
+   if ( $val =~ $quote_re ) {
+      # If it matches the quote re, then $2 holds the value
+      $val = $2;
+   }
+   else {
+      # Otherwise, remove possible trailing comments
+      $val =~ s/\s*#.*//;
+   }
+
    if ( my ($num, $factor) = $val =~ m/(\d+)([KMGT])b?$/i ) {
       # value is a size like 1k, 16M, etc.
       my %factor_for = (
diff --git a/t/lib/MySQLConfig.t b/t/lib/MySQLConfig.t
index 3e9b7b62..706e430e 100644
--- a/t/lib/MySQLConfig.t
+++ b/t/lib/MySQLConfig.t
@@ -827,6 +827,45 @@ SKIP: {
    );
 }
 
+$config = new MySQLConfig(
+   file => "$trunk/t/lib/samples/configs/mycnf-kc-001.txt",
+   TextResultSetParser => $trp,
+);
+is(
+  $config->value_of('user'),
+  'mysql',
+  'end of line comment in option file'
+);
+
+is(
+  $config->value_of('password'),
+  'password # still part of it!',
+  'end of line comments respect quoted values'
+);
+
+is(
+  $config->value_of('something'),
+  'something ; or # another',
+  "..and removing comments doesn't leave trailing whitespace"
+);
+
+ok(
+   defined $config->value_of('log_bin'),
+   "bools with comments in the end are found"
+);
+
+is(
+   $config->value_of('log_bin'),
+   "ON",
+   "And the comment is correctly stripped out"
+);
+
+is_deeply(
+   [ sort keys %{$config->variables} ],
+   [ sort qw( password something user log_bin )],
+   "start of line comments with # or ; are ignored"
+);
+
 # #############################################################################
 # Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at pt-config-diff line 1996
 # https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit/+bug/917770
@@ -865,5 +904,6 @@ like(
    '_d() works'
 );
 ok($sb->ok(), "Sandbox servers") or BAIL_OUT(__FILE__ . " broke the sandbox");
+
 done_testing;
 exit;
diff --git a/t/lib/samples/configs/mycnf-kc-001.txt b/t/lib/samples/configs/mycnf-kc-001.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9b501bdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/lib/samples/configs/mycnf-kc-001.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[mysqld]
+user=mysql # comment
+password="password # still part of it!"# comment
+something='something ; or # another'      # comment
+;semicolon="start of line comment with ;"
+#pound="start of line comment with #"
+   ;spacecolon
+   #spacepound
+log_bin # bool with comment