Would be nice to have this merged! I have some settings that run in a constant exec-loop due to the /usr/bin/test outputs tabs instead of spaces, e.g.

Puppet run debug output:

Debug: Executing: '/usr/bin/test "$(/sbin/sysctl -n net.ipv4.tcp_wmem)" = "4096 12582912 16777216"'

Output when command run manually:

/sbin/sysctl -n net.ipv4.tcp_wmem
4096	12582912	16777216

Command run with suggested fix

/sbin/sysctl -n net.ipv4.tcp_wmem | /usr/bin/tr '\t' ' '
4096 12582912 16777216

Please merge this. I can confirm that the changes in the pull request solved the space/tab issue for me.

@thias please merge this.