can't find facts specified on CLI when defined in ini file containing spaces around =

i've seen this in both native and ruby facter.
if you define an external non-executable fact containing a space in an ini txt file, and there are spaces around the '=' the fact key appears to have a trailing space in it.
In facter2, IIRC you can get the fact using 'foo ', but this doesn't appear to work in native facter. In either case you can find the fact in the entire output with grep.
./external/foo.txt

foo = bar

bar=foo

native facter:

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ foo

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ 'foo '

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ | grep foo

bar => foo

foo  =>  bar

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ bar

foo

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ 'bar'

foo

[root@lks2ze2y006q9pk ~]# facter --external-dir external/ 'bar '

foo

it appears native facter is stripping the spaces off the key on the CLI, but not in the inifile
it appears facter 2 is doing neither.