diff --git a/cdist/emulator.py b/cdist/emulator.py
index 9fe84056..60b94880 100644
--- a/cdist/emulator.py
+++ b/cdist/emulator.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import argparse
 import logging
 import os
 import sys
+import re
 
 import cdist
 from cdist import core
@@ -389,12 +390,15 @@ class Emulator:
         if "require" in self.env:
             requirements = self.env['require']
             self.log.debug("reqs = " + requirements)
-            for requirement in requirements.split(" "):
+            for requirement in self._parse_require(requirements):
                 # Ignore empty fields - probably the only field anyway
                 if len(requirement) == 0:
                     continue
                 self.record_requirement(requirement)
 
+    def _parse_require(self, require):
+        return re.split(r'[ \t\n]+', require)
+
     def record_auto_requirements(self):
         """An object shall automatically depend on all objects that it
            defined in it's type manifest.
diff --git a/cdist/test/emulator/__init__.py b/cdist/test/emulator/__init__.py
index e375676c..befd7b57 100644
--- a/cdist/test/emulator/__init__.py
+++ b/cdist/test/emulator/__init__.py
@@ -685,6 +685,16 @@ class EmulatorAlreadyExistingRequirementsWarnTestCase(test.CdistTestCase):
         self.env['require'] = '__directory/spam'
         emu = emulator.Emulator(argv, env=self.env)
 
+    def test_parse_require(self):
+        require = " \t \n  \t\t\n\t\na\tb\nc d \te\t\nf\ng\t "
+        expected = ['', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', '', ]
+
+        argv = ['__directory', 'spam']
+        emu = emulator.Emulator(argv, env=self.env)
+        requirements = emu._parse_require(require)
+
+        self.assertEqual(expected, requirements)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     import unittest
diff --git a/docs/src/cdist-manifest.rst b/docs/src/cdist-manifest.rst
index 5dbca479..2e49a721 100644
--- a/docs/src/cdist-manifest.rst
+++ b/docs/src/cdist-manifest.rst
@@ -95,7 +95,8 @@ Dependencies
 ------------
 If you want to describe that something requires something else, just
 setup the variable "require" to contain the requirements. Multiple
-requirements can be added white space separated.
+requirements can be added separated with (optionally consecutive)
+delimiters including space, tab and newline.
 
 ::