Index: configparser.py
===================================================================
--- configparser.py	(revision 83102)
+++ configparser.py	(working copy)
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
     # fallback for setup.py which hasn't yet built _collections
     _default_dict = dict
 
+import itertools
 import re
 
 __all__ = ["NoSectionError", "DuplicateSectionError", "NoOptionError",
@@ -398,12 +399,11 @@
         for section in self._sections:
             fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
             for (key, value) in self._sections[section].items():
-                if key != "__name__":
-                    if value is None:
-                        fp.write("%s\n" % (key))
-                    else:
-                        fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
-                                 (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
+                if key == "__name__":
+                    continue
+                if value is not None:
+                    key = " = ".join((key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
+                fp.write("%s\n" % (key))
             fp.write("\n")
 
     def remove_option(self, section, option):
@@ -464,10 +464,10 @@
         leading whitespace.  Blank lines, lines beginning with a '#',
         and just about everything else are ignored.
         """
-        cursect = None                            # None, or a dictionary
+        cursect = None                        # None, or a dictionary
         optname = None
         lineno = 0
-        e = None                                  # None, or an exception
+        e = None                              # None, or an exception
         while True:
             line = fp.readline()
             if not line:
@@ -483,7 +483,7 @@
             if line[0].isspace() and cursect is not None and optname:
                 value = line.strip()
                 if value:
-                    cursect[optname] = "%s\n%s" % (cursect[optname], value)
+                    cursect[optname].append(value)
             # a section header or option header?
             else:
                 # is it a section header?
@@ -508,6 +508,7 @@
                     mo = self._optcre.match(line)
                     if mo:
                         optname, vi, optval = mo.group('option', 'vi', 'value')
+                        optname = self.optionxform(optname.rstrip())
                         # This check is fine because the OPTCRE cannot
                         # match if it would set optval to None
                         if optval is not None:
@@ -518,11 +519,13 @@
                                 if pos != -1 and optval[pos-1].isspace():
                                     optval = optval[:pos]
                             optval = optval.strip()
-                        # allow empty values
-                        if optval == '""':
-                            optval = ''
-                        optname = self.optionxform(optname.rstrip())
-                        cursect[optname] = optval
+                            # allow empty values
+                            if optval == '""':
+                                optval = ''
+                            cursect[optname] = [optval]
+                        else:
+                            # valueless option handling
+                            cursect[optname] = optval
                     else:
                         # a non-fatal parsing error occurred.  set up the
                         # exception but keep going. the exception will be
@@ -535,6 +538,13 @@
         if e:
             raise e
 
+        # join the multi-line values collected while reading
+        all_sections = itertools.chain([self._defaults],
+                                       self._sections.values()) 
+        for options in all_sections:
+            for name, val in options.items():
+                if isinstance(val, list):
+                    options[name] = '\n'.join(val)
 
 class ConfigParser(RawConfigParser):
 
Index: test/test_cfgparser.py
===================================================================
--- test/test_cfgparser.py	(revision 83102)
+++ test/test_cfgparser.py	(working copy)
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
+import collections
 import configparser
 import io
+import os
 import unittest
-import collections
 
 from test import support
 
@@ -392,7 +393,34 @@
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, cf.get, 'non-string',
                           'string_with_interpolation', raw=False)
 
+class MultilineValuesTestCase(TestCaseBase):
+    config_class = configparser.ConfigParser
+    wonderful_spam = "I'm having spam spam spam spam "\
+                     "spam spam spam beaked beans spam "\
+                     "spam spam and spam!".replace(' ', '\t\n')
 
+    def setUp(self):
+        cf = self.newconfig()
+        for i in range(100):
+            s = 'section{}'.format(i)
+            cf.add_section(s)
+            for j in range(10):
+                cf.set(s, 'lovely_spam{}'.format(j), self.wonderful_spam)
+        with open(support.TESTFN, 'w') as f:
+            cf.write(f)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        os.unlink(support.TESTFN)
+
+    def test_dominating_multiline_values(self):
+        # we're reading from file because this is where the code changed
+        # during performance updates in Python 3.2
+        cf_from_file = self.newconfig()
+        with open(support.TESTFN) as f:
+            cf_from_file.readfp(f)
+        self.assertEqual(cf_from_file.get('section8', 'lovely_spam4'),
+                         self.wonderful_spam.replace('\t\n', '\n'))
+
 class RawConfigParserTestCase(TestCaseBase):
     config_class = configparser.RawConfigParser
 
@@ -510,10 +538,11 @@
 def test_main():
     support.run_unittest(
         ConfigParserTestCase,
+        MultilineValuesTestCase,
         RawConfigParserTestCase,
         SafeConfigParserTestCase,
+        SafeConfigParserTestCaseNoValue,
         SortedTestCase,
-        SafeConfigParserTestCaseNoValue,
         )