diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst
index e5a8def..6c04aea 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst
@@ -156,7 +156,6 @@
   ``line-range`` cannot contain space, e.g.
   "1-30" is valid range but "1 - 30" is not.
 
-  ``module=foo`` combined keyword=value form is interchangably accepted
 
 The meanings of each keyword are:
 
diff --git a/lib/dynamic_debug.c b/lib/dynamic_debug.c
index 08e4b05..2d4dfd4 100644
--- a/lib/dynamic_debug.c
+++ b/lib/dynamic_debug.c
@@ -353,8 +353,7 @@
 
 /*
  * Parse words[] as a ddebug query specification, which is a series
- * of (keyword, value) pairs or combined keyword=value terms,
- * chosen from these possibilities:
+ * of (keyword, value) pairs chosen from these possibilities:
  *
  * func <function-name>
  * file <full-pathname>
@@ -373,34 +372,22 @@
 	unsigned int i;
 	int rc = 0;
 	char *fline;
-	char *keyword, *arg;
+
+	/* check we have an even number of words */
+	if (nwords % 2 != 0) {
+		pr_err("expecting pairs of match-spec <value>\n");
+		return -EINVAL;
+	}
 
 	if (modname)
 		/* support $modname.dyndbg=<multiple queries> */
 		query->module = modname;
 
-	for (i = 0; i < nwords; i++) {
-		/* accept keyword=arg */
-		vpr_info("%d w:%s\n", i, words[i]);
-
-		keyword = words[i];
-		arg = strchr(keyword, '=');
-		if (arg) {
-			*arg++ = '\0';
-		} else {
-			i++; /* next word is arg */
-			if (!(i < nwords)) {
-				pr_err("missing arg to keyword: %s\n", keyword);
-				return -EINVAL;
-			}
-			arg = words[i];
-		}
-		vpr_info("%d key:%s arg:%s\n", i, keyword, arg);
-
-		if (!strcmp(keyword, "func")) {
-			rc = check_set(&query->function, arg, "func");
-		} else if (!strcmp(keyword, "file")) {
-			if (check_set(&query->filename, arg, "file"))
+	for (i = 0; i < nwords; i += 2) {
+		if (!strcmp(words[i], "func")) {
+			rc = check_set(&query->function, words[i+1], "func");
+		} else if (!strcmp(words[i], "file")) {
+			if (check_set(&query->filename, words[i+1], "file"))
 				return -EINVAL;
 
 			/* tail :$info is function or line-range */
@@ -416,18 +403,18 @@
 				if (parse_linerange(query, fline))
 					return -EINVAL;
 			}
-		} else if (!strcmp(keyword, "module")) {
-			rc = check_set(&query->module, arg, "module");
-		} else if (!strcmp(keyword, "format")) {
-			string_unescape_inplace(arg, UNESCAPE_SPACE |
+		} else if (!strcmp(words[i], "module")) {
+			rc = check_set(&query->module, words[i+1], "module");
+		} else if (!strcmp(words[i], "format")) {
+			string_unescape_inplace(words[i+1], UNESCAPE_SPACE |
 							    UNESCAPE_OCTAL |
 							    UNESCAPE_SPECIAL);
-			rc = check_set(&query->format, arg, "format");
-		} else if (!strcmp(keyword, "line")) {
-			if (parse_linerange(query, arg))
+			rc = check_set(&query->format, words[i+1], "format");
+		} else if (!strcmp(words[i], "line")) {
+			if (parse_linerange(query, words[i+1]))
 				return -EINVAL;
 		} else {
-			pr_err("unknown keyword \"%s\"\n", keyword);
+			pr_err("unknown keyword \"%s\"\n", words[i]);
 			return -EINVAL;
 		}
 		if (rc)