diff --git a/src/shared/fileio.c b/src/shared/fileio.c
index 96e23c5bbb6..2ccb9e7edc7 100644
--- a/src/shared/fileio.c
+++ b/src/shared/fileio.c
@@ -522,6 +522,37 @@ int load_env_file(const char *fname, const char *newline, char ***rl) {
         return 0;
 }
 
+static void write_env_var(FILE *f, const char *v) {
+        const char *p;
+
+        p = strchr(v, '=');
+        if (!p) {
+                /* Fallback */
+                fputs(v, f);
+                fputc('\n', f);
+                return;
+        }
+
+        p++;
+        fwrite(v, 1, p-v, f);
+
+        if (string_has_cc(p) || chars_intersect(p, WHITESPACE "\'\"\\")) {
+                fputc('\"', f);
+
+                for (; *p; p++) {
+                        if (strchr("\'\"\\", *p))
+                                fputc('\\', f);
+
+                        fputc(*p, f);
+                }
+
+                fputc('\"', f);
+        } else
+                fputs(p, f);
+
+        fputc('\n', f);
+}
+
 int write_env_file(const char *fname, char **l) {
         char **i;
         char _cleanup_free_ *p = NULL;
@@ -535,10 +566,8 @@ int write_env_file(const char *fname, char **l) {
         fchmod_umask(fileno(f), 0644);
 
         errno = 0;
-        STRV_FOREACH(i, l) {
-                fputs(*i, f);
-                fputc('\n', f);
-        }
+        STRV_FOREACH(i, l)
+                write_env_var(f, *i);
 
         fflush(f);
 
diff --git a/src/test/test-fileio.c b/src/test/test-fileio.c
index 55eb7539fd8..7adf2efdd1b 100644
--- a/src/test/test-fileio.c
+++ b/src/test/test-fileio.c
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ static void test_parse_env_file(void) {
         int fd, r;
         FILE *f;
         _cleanup_free_ char *one = NULL, *two = NULL, *three = NULL, *four = NULL, *five = NULL, *six = NULL, *seven = NULL;
-        _cleanup_strv_free_ char **a = NULL;
+        _cleanup_strv_free_ char **a = NULL, **b = NULL;
         char **i;
+        unsigned k;
 
         fd = mkostemp(t, O_CLOEXEC);
         assert_se(fd >= 0);
@@ -90,9 +91,31 @@ static void test_parse_env_file(void) {
         assert_se(r >= 0);
 
         STRV_FOREACH(i, a)
-                log_info("Got: %s", *i);
+                log_info("Got: <%s>", *i);
+
+        assert_se(streq(a[0], "one=BAR"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[1], "two=bar"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[2], "three=333\nxxxx"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[3], "four=44\"44"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[4], "five=55\'55FIVEcinco"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[5], "six=seis sechs sis"));
+        assert_se(streq(a[6], "seven="));
+        assert_se(a[7] == NULL);
+
+        r = write_env_file("/tmp/test-fileio", a);
+        assert_se(r >= 0);
+
+        r = load_env_file("/tmp/test-fileio", NULL, &b);
+        assert_se(r >= 0);
+
+        k = 0;
+        STRV_FOREACH(i, b) {
+                log_info("Got2: <%s>", *i);
+                assert_se(streq(*i, a[k++]));
+        }
 
         unlink(t);
+        unlink("/tmp/test-fileio");
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {