diff --git a/src/input/ReaderBackend.h b/src/input/ReaderBackend.h
index 7626cc25ed..8ee14c808a 100644
--- a/src/input/ReaderBackend.h
+++ b/src/input/ReaderBackend.h
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ public:
 	struct ReaderInfo
 		{
 		// Structure takes ownership of the strings.
-		typedef std::map<const char*, const char*> config_map;
+		typedef std::map<const char*, const char*, CompareString> config_map;
 
 		/**
 		 * A string left to the interpretation of the reader
diff --git a/src/logging/WriterBackend.h b/src/logging/WriterBackend.h
index 1ca5650057..d5f2be225e 100644
--- a/src/logging/WriterBackend.h
+++ b/src/logging/WriterBackend.h
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public:
 	struct WriterInfo
 		{
 		// Structure takes ownership of these strings.
-		typedef std::map<const char*, const char*> config_map;
+		typedef std::map<const char*, const char*, CompareString> config_map;
 
 		/**
 		 * A string left to the interpretation of the writer
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index a695c6df6a..030a704092 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -345,4 +345,15 @@ inline int safe_vsnprintf(char* str, size_t size, const char* format, va_list al
 extern void get_memory_usage(unsigned int* total,
 			     unsigned int* malloced);
 
+// class to be used as a third argument for stl maps to be able to use
+// char*'s as keys. Otherwise the pointer values will be compared instead
+// of the actual string values.
+struct CompareString 
+	{
+	bool operator()(char const *a, char const *b) const
+		{
+		return std::strcmp(a, b) < 0;
+		}
+	};
+
 #endif