diff --git a/otherlibs/configurator/src/v1.ml b/otherlibs/configurator/src/v1.ml
index 2b849e5c6f9b..98d979c390e7 100644
--- a/otherlibs/configurator/src/v1.ml
+++ b/otherlibs/configurator/src/v1.ml
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ module Pkg_config = struct
             (Process.run_capture_exn c ~dir ?env t.pkg_config [ what; package ])
         with
         | "" -> []
-        | s -> String.split s ~on:' ' |> List.filter ~f:(( <> ) "")
+        | s -> String.extract_blank_separated_words s
       in
       Ok { libs = run "--libs"; cflags = run "--cflags" }
     else