diff --git a/scripts/kernel-doc b/scripts/kernel-doc
index c7109ca..01e8a8e 100755
--- a/scripts/kernel-doc
+++ b/scripts/kernel-doc
@@ -281,9 +281,10 @@
 my $doc_start = '^/\*\*\s*$'; # Allow whitespace at end of comment start.
 my $doc_end = '\*/';
 my $doc_com = '\s*\*\s*';
+my $doc_com_body = '\s*\* ?';
 my $doc_decl = $doc_com . '(\w+)';
 my $doc_sect = $doc_com . '([' . $doc_special . ']?[\w\s]+):(.*)';
-my $doc_content = $doc_com . '(.*)';
+my $doc_content = $doc_com_body . '(.*)';
 my $doc_block = $doc_com . 'DOC:\s*(.*)?';
 
 my %constants;
@@ -460,6 +461,9 @@
 #   print STDERR "contents af:$contents\n";
 
     foreach $line (split "\n", $contents) {
+	if (! $output_preformatted) {
+	    $line =~ s/^\s*//;
+	}
 	if ($line eq ""){
 	    if (! $output_preformatted) {
 		print $lineprefix, local_unescape($blankline);
@@ -2085,7 +2089,7 @@
 		    $descr= $1;
 		    $descr =~ s/^\s*//;
 		    $descr =~ s/\s*$//;
-		    $descr =~ s/\s+/ /;
+		    $descr =~ s/\s+/ /g;
 		    $declaration_purpose = xml_escape($descr);
 		    $in_purpose = 1;
 		} else {
@@ -2177,6 +2181,7 @@
 		    # Continued declaration purpose
 		    chomp($declaration_purpose);
 		    $declaration_purpose .= " " . xml_escape($1);
+		    $declaration_purpose =~ s/\s+/ /g;
 		} else {
 		    $contents .= $1 . "\n";
 		}