diff --git a/frontend/ui/widget/textboxwidget.lua b/frontend/ui/widget/textboxwidget.lua
index b7bfd251d..8adcc40d3 100644
--- a/frontend/ui/widget/textboxwidget.lua
+++ b/frontend/ui/widget/textboxwidget.lua
@@ -3,8 +3,7 @@ local Widget = require("ui/widget/widget")
 local RenderText = require("ui/rendertext")
 local Screen = require("device").screen
 local Geom = require("ui/geometry")
-
--- TODO: rename string:gsplit definition
+local util = require("util")
 
 --[[
 A TextWidget that handles long text wrapping
@@ -64,45 +63,6 @@ function TextBoxWidget:_wrapGreedyAlg(h_list)
     return v_list
 end
 
---[[
-Lua doesn't have a string.split() function and most of the time
-you don't really need it because string.gmatch() is enough.
-However string.gmatch() has one significant disadvantage for me:
-You can't split a string while matching both the delimited
-strings and the delimiters themselves without tracking positions
-and substrings. The string.gsplit() function below takes care of
-this problem.
-Author: Peter Odding
-License: MIT/X11
-Source: http://snippets.luacode.org/snippets/String_splitting_130
---]]
-function string:gsplit(pattern, capture)
-    pattern = pattern and tostring(pattern) or '%s+'
-    if (''):find(pattern) then
-        error('pattern matches empty string!', 2)
-    end
-    return coroutine.wrap(function()
-        local index = 1
-        repeat
-            local first, last = self:find(pattern, index)
-            if first and last then
-                if index < first then
-                    coroutine.yield(self:sub(index, first - 1))
-                end
-                if capture then
-                    coroutine.yield(self:sub(first, last))
-                end
-                index = last + 1
-            else
-                if index <= #self then
-                    coroutine.yield(self:sub(index))
-                end
-                break
-            end
-        until index > #self
-    end)
-end
-
 function TextBoxWidget:_getVerticalList(alg)
     if self.vertical_list then
         return self.vertical_list
@@ -110,10 +70,10 @@ function TextBoxWidget:_getVerticalList(alg)
     -- build horizontal list
     local h_list = {}
     local line_count = 0
-    for line in self.text:gsplit("\n", true) do
+    for line in util.gsplit(self.text, "\n", true) do
         for words in line:gmatch("[\32-\127\192-\255]+[\128-\191]*") do
-            for word in words:gsplit("%s+", true) do
-                for w in word:gsplit("%p+", true) do
+            for word in util.gsplit(words, "%s+", true) do
+                for w in util.gsplit(word, "%p+", true) do
                     local word_box = {}
                     word_box.word = w
                     word_box.width = RenderText:sizeUtf8Text(0, Screen:getWidth(), self.face, w, true, self.bold).x
diff --git a/frontend/util.lua b/frontend/util.lua
index ff1fbe4e1..5eff42fef 100644
--- a/frontend/util.lua
+++ b/frontend/util.lua
@@ -8,4 +8,43 @@ function util.stripePunctuations(word)
     return word:gsub("\226[\128-\131][\128-\191]",''):gsub("^%p+",''):gsub("%p+$",'')
 end
 
+--[[
+Lua doesn't have a string.split() function and most of the time
+you don't really need it because string.gmatch() is enough.
+However string.gmatch() has one significant disadvantage for me:
+You can't split a string while matching both the delimited
+strings and the delimiters themselves without tracking positions
+and substrings. The gsplit function below takes care of
+this problem.
+Author: Peter Odding
+License: MIT/X11
+Source: http://snippets.luacode.org/snippets/String_splitting_130
+--]]
+function util.gsplit(str, pattern, capture)
+    pattern = pattern and tostring(pattern) or '%s+'
+    if (''):find(pattern) then
+        error('pattern matches empty string!', 2)
+    end
+    return coroutine.wrap(function()
+        local index = 1
+        repeat
+            local first, last = str:find(pattern, index)
+            if first and last then
+                if index < first then
+                    coroutine.yield(str:sub(index, first - 1))
+                end
+                if capture then
+                    coroutine.yield(str:sub(first, last))
+                end
+                index = last + 1
+            else
+                if index <= #str then
+                    coroutine.yield(str:sub(index))
+                end
+                break
+            end
+        until index > #str
+    end)
+end
+
 return util
diff --git a/spec/unit/util_spec.lua b/spec/unit/util_spec.lua
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..681d251f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/unit/util_spec.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+require("commonrequire")
+
+local util = require("util")
+
+describe("util module", function()
+    it("should strip punctuations around word", function()
+        assert.is_equal(util.stripePunctuations("\"hello world\""), "hello world")
+        assert.is_equal(util.stripePunctuations("\"hello world?\""), "hello world")
+        assert.is_equal(util.stripePunctuations("\"hello, world?\""), "hello, world")
+        assert.is_equal(util.stripePunctuations("“你好“"), "你好")
+        assert.is_equal(util.stripePunctuations("“你好?“"), "你好")
+    end)
+    it("should split string with patterns", function()
+        local sentence = "Hello world, welcome to KoReader!"
+        local words = {}
+        for word in util.gsplit(sentence, "%s+", false) do
+            table.insert(words, word)
+        end
+        assert.are_same(words, {"Hello", "world,", "welcome", "to", "KoReader!"})
+    end)
+    it("should split command line arguments with quotation", function()
+        local command = "./sdcv -nj \"words\" \"a lot\" 'more or less' --data-dir=dict"
+        local argv = {}
+        for arg1 in util.gsplit(command, "[\"'].-[\"']", true) do
+            for arg2 in util.gsplit(arg1, "^[^\"'].-%s+", true) do
+                for arg3 in util.gsplit(arg2, "[\"']", false) do
+                    local trimed = arg3:gsub("^%s*(.-)%s*$", "%1")
+                    if trimed ~= "" then
+                        table.insert(argv, trimed)
+                    end
+                end
+            end
+        end
+        assert.are_same(argv, {"./sdcv", "-nj", "words", "a lot", "more or less", "--data-dir=dict"})
+    end)
+end)