return -EFAULT;
 
        buffer[nbytes] = 0;     /* nul-terminate */
-       strstrip(buffer);
        if (cft->write_u64) {
-               u64 val = simple_strtoull(buffer, &end, 0);
+               u64 val = simple_strtoull(strstrip(buffer), &end, 0);
                if (*end)
                        return -EINVAL;
                retval = cft->write_u64(cgrp, cft, val);
        } else {
-               s64 val = simple_strtoll(buffer, &end, 0);
+               s64 val = simple_strtoll(strstrip(buffer), &end, 0);
                if (*end)
                        return -EINVAL;
                retval = cft->write_s64(cgrp, cft, val);
        }
 
        buffer[nbytes] = 0;     /* nul-terminate */
-       strstrip(buffer);
-       retval = cft->write_string(cgrp, cft, buffer);
+       retval = cft->write_string(cgrp, cft, strstrip(buffer));
        if (!retval)
                retval = nbytes;
 out: