diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index 89b985fb8..6e5649b52 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -18767,9 +18767,10 @@ as a sample expression rule (see section 7.3). This it useful to add some
 less common information such as the client's SSL certificate's DN, or to log
 the key that would be used to store an entry into a stick table.
 
-Note: spaces must be escaped. A space character is considered as a separator.
-In order to emit a verbatim '%', it must be preceded by another '%' resulting
-in '%%'. HAProxy will automatically merge consecutive separators.
+Note: spaces must be escaped. In configuration directives "log-format",
+"log-format-sd" and "unique-id-format", spaces are considered as
+delimiters and are merged. In order to emit a verbatim '%', it must be
+preceded by another '%' resulting in '%%'.
 
 Note: when using the RFC5424 syslog message format, the characters '"',
 '\' and ']' inside PARAM-VALUE should be escaped with '\' as prefix (see
diff --git a/include/haproxy/log-t.h b/include/haproxy/log-t.h
index 2fcce43bd..8be5f0987 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/log-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/log-t.h
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 #define LOG_OPT_RES_CAP         0x00000010
 #define LOG_OPT_HTTP            0x00000020
 #define LOG_OPT_ESC             0x00000040
+#define LOG_OPT_MERGE_SPACES    0x00000080
 
 
 /* Fields that need to be extracted from the incoming connection or request for
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index 443c40674..63483cf7b 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -2927,7 +2927,8 @@ int check_config_validity()
 			curproxy->conf.args.file = curproxy->conf.lfs_file;
 			curproxy->conf.args.line = curproxy->conf.lfs_line;
 			err = NULL;
-			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.logformat_string, curproxy, &curproxy->logformat, LOG_OPT_MANDATORY,
+			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.logformat_string, curproxy, &curproxy->logformat,
+			                            LOG_OPT_MANDATORY|LOG_OPT_MERGE_SPACES,
 			                            SMP_VAL_FE_LOG_END, &err)) {
 				ha_alert("Parsing [%s:%d]: failed to parse log-format : %s.\n",
 					 curproxy->conf.lfs_file, curproxy->conf.lfs_line, err);
@@ -2943,7 +2944,8 @@ int check_config_validity()
 			curproxy->conf.args.file = curproxy->conf.lfsd_file;
 			curproxy->conf.args.line = curproxy->conf.lfsd_line;
 			err = NULL;
-			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.logformat_sd_string, curproxy, &curproxy->logformat_sd, LOG_OPT_MANDATORY,
+			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.logformat_sd_string, curproxy, &curproxy->logformat_sd,
+			                            LOG_OPT_MANDATORY|LOG_OPT_MERGE_SPACES,
 			                            SMP_VAL_FE_LOG_END, &err)) {
 				ha_alert("Parsing [%s:%d]: failed to parse log-format-sd : %s.\n",
 					 curproxy->conf.lfs_file, curproxy->conf.lfs_line, err);
@@ -2964,8 +2966,11 @@ int check_config_validity()
 			curproxy->conf.args.file = curproxy->conf.uif_file;
 			curproxy->conf.args.line = curproxy->conf.uif_line;
 			err = NULL;
-			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.uniqueid_format_string, curproxy, &curproxy->format_unique_id, LOG_OPT_HTTP,
-			                            (curproxy->cap & PR_CAP_FE) ? SMP_VAL_FE_HRQ_HDR : SMP_VAL_BE_HRQ_HDR, &err)) {
+			if (!parse_logformat_string(curproxy->conf.uniqueid_format_string, curproxy, &curproxy->format_unique_id,
+			                            LOG_OPT_HTTP|LOG_OPT_MERGE_SPACES,
+			                            (curproxy->cap & PR_CAP_FE) ? SMP_VAL_FE_HRQ_HDR
+			                                                        : SMP_VAL_BE_HRQ_HDR,
+			                            &err)) {
 				ha_alert("Parsing [%s:%d]: failed to parse unique-id : %s.\n",
 					 curproxy->conf.uif_file, curproxy->conf.uif_line, err);
 				free(err);
diff --git a/src/log.c b/src/log.c
index f2480b436..192525eab 100644
--- a/src/log.c
+++ b/src/log.c
@@ -700,8 +700,13 @@ int parse_logformat_string(const char *fmt, struct proxy *curproxy, struct list
 		if (cformat == LF_INIT) { /* resynchronize state to text/sep/startvar */
 			switch (*str) {
 			case '%': cformat = LF_STARTVAR;  break;
-			case ' ': cformat = LF_SEPARATOR; break;
 			case  0 : cformat = LF_END;       break;
+			case ' ':
+				if (options & LOG_OPT_MERGE_SPACES) {
+					cformat = LF_SEPARATOR;
+					break;
+				}
+				/* fall through */
 			default : cformat = LF_TEXT;      break;
 			}
 		}