diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index a8276ac3..36ab8f51 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -171,6 +171,8 @@ conky_SOURCES = \
 	$(weather)              \
 	$(lua)                  \
 	$(solaris)              \
+	template.c              \
+	template.h              \
 	timed_thread.c          \
 	timed_thread.h          \
 	mboxscan.c              \
@@ -239,6 +241,8 @@ EXTRA_DIST = \
 	specials.h              \
 	tailhead.c              \
 	tailhead.h              \
+	template.c              \
+	template.h              \
 	top.h                   \
 	diskio.h                \
 	x11.c                   \
diff --git a/src/conky.c b/src/conky.c
index 59987dad..40cb317b 100644
--- a/src/conky.c
+++ b/src/conky.c
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
 #include "mboxscan.h"
 #include "specials.h"
 #include "temphelper.h"
+#include "template.h"
 #include "tailhead.h"
 #include "top.h"
 
@@ -381,13 +382,6 @@ static int sensor_device;
 long color0, color1, color2, color3, color4, color5, color6, color7, color8,
 	 color9;
 
-static char *template[MAX_TEMPLATES];
-
-char **get_templates(void)
-{
-	return template;
-}
-
 /* maximum size of config TEXT buffer, i.e. below TEXT line. */
 unsigned int max_user_text;
 
@@ -4886,12 +4880,7 @@ void clean_up(void *memtofree1, void* memtofree2)
 
 #endif /* X11 */
 
-	for (i = 0; i < MAX_TEMPLATES; i++) {
-		if (template[i]) {
-			free(template[i]);
-			template[i] = NULL;
-		}
-	}
+	free_templates();
 
 	free_text_objects(&global_root_object, 0);
 	if (tmpstring1) {
@@ -5035,7 +5024,6 @@ static void set_default_configurations_for_x(void)
 
 static void set_default_configurations(void)
 {
-	int i;
 #ifdef MPD
 	char *mpd_env_host;
 	char *mpd_env_port;
@@ -5141,11 +5129,7 @@ static void set_default_configurations(void)
 	info.x11.desktop.name = NULL; 
 #endif /* X11 */
 
-	for (i = 0; i < MAX_TEMPLATES; i++) {
-		if (template[i])
-			free(template[i]);
-		template[i] = strdup("");
-	}
+	free_templates();
 
 	free(current_mail_spool);
 	{
@@ -5463,12 +5447,8 @@ char load_config_file(const char *f)
 #endif /* X11 */
 #define TEMPLATE_CONF(n) \
 		CONF("template"#n) { \
-			if (value) { \
-				free(template[n]); \
-				template[n] = strdup(value); \
-			} else { \
+			if (set_template(n, value)) \
 				CONF_ERR; \
-			} \
 		}
 		TEMPLATE_CONF(0)
 		TEMPLATE_CONF(1)
@@ -6604,7 +6584,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	max_user_text = MAX_USER_TEXT_DEFAULT;
 	current_config = 0;
 	memset(&info, 0, sizeof(info));
-	memset(template, 0, sizeof(template));
+	free_templates();
 	clear_net_stats();
 
 #ifdef TCP_PORT_MONITOR
diff --git a/src/core.c b/src/core.c
index aa7c8e69..bfc636ed 100644
--- a/src/core.c
+++ b/src/core.c
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
 #include "mboxscan.h"
 #include "specials.h"
 #include "temphelper.h"
+#include "template.h"
 #include "tailhead.h"
 #include "top.h"
 
@@ -2173,197 +2174,6 @@ struct text_object *construct_text_object(const char *s, const char *arg, long
 	return obj;
 }
 
-/* backslash_escape - do the actual substitution task for template objects
- *
- * The field templates is used for substituting the \N occurences. Set it to
- * NULL to leave them as they are.
- */
-static char *backslash_escape(const char *src, char **templates, unsigned int template_count)
-{
-	char *src_dup;
-	const char *p;
-	unsigned int dup_idx = 0, dup_len;
-
-	dup_len = strlen(src) + 1;
-	src_dup = malloc(dup_len * sizeof(char));
-
-	p = src;
-	while (*p) {
-		switch (*p) {
-		case '\\':
-			if (!*(p + 1))
-				break;
-			if (*(p + 1) == '\\') {
-				src_dup[dup_idx++] = '\\';
-				p++;
-			} else if (*(p + 1) == ' ') {
-				src_dup[dup_idx++] = ' ';
-				p++;
-			} else if (*(p + 1) == 'n') {
-				src_dup[dup_idx++] = '\n';
-				p++;
-			} else if (templates) {
-				unsigned int tmpl_num;
-				int digits;
-				if ((sscanf(p + 1, "%u%n", &tmpl_num, &digits) <= 0) ||
-				    (tmpl_num > template_count))
-					break;
-				dup_len += strlen(templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
-				src_dup = realloc(src_dup, dup_len * sizeof(char));
-				sprintf(src_dup + dup_idx, "%s", templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
-				dup_idx += strlen(templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
-				p += digits;
-			}
-			break;
-		default:
-			src_dup[dup_idx++] = *p;
-			break;
-		}
-		p++;
-	}
-	src_dup[dup_idx] = '\0';
-	src_dup = realloc(src_dup, (strlen(src_dup) + 1) * sizeof(char));
-	return src_dup;
-}
-
-/* handle_template_object - core logic of the template object
- *
- * use config variables like this:
- * template1 = "$\1\2"
- * template2 = "\1: ${fs_bar 4,100 \2} ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2}"
- *
- * and use them like this:
- * ${template1 node name}
- * ${template2 root /}
- * ${template2 cdrom /mnt/cdrom}
- */
-static char *handle_template(const char *tmpl, const char *args)
-{
-	char *args_dup = NULL;
-	char *p, *p_old;
-	char **argsp = NULL;
-	unsigned int argcnt = 0, template_idx, i;
-	char *eval_text;
-
-	if ((sscanf(tmpl, "template%u", &template_idx) != 1) ||
-	    (template_idx >= MAX_TEMPLATES))
-		return NULL;
-
-	if(args) {
-		args_dup = strdup(args);
-		p = args_dup;
-		while (*p) {
-			while (*p && (*p == ' ' && (p == args_dup || *(p - 1) != '\\')))
-				p++;
-			if (p > args_dup && *(p - 1) == '\\')
-				p--;
-			p_old = p;
-			while (*p && (*p != ' ' || (p > args_dup && *(p - 1) == '\\')))
-				p++;
-			if (*p) {
-				(*p) = '\0';
-				p++;
-			}
-			argsp = realloc(argsp, ++argcnt * sizeof(char *));
-			argsp[argcnt - 1] = p_old;
-		}
-		for (i = 0; i < argcnt; i++) {
-			char *tmp;
-			tmp = backslash_escape(argsp[i], NULL, 0);
-			DBGP2("%s: substituted arg '%s' to '%s'", tmpl, argsp[i], tmp);
-			argsp[i] = tmp;
-		}
-	}
-
-	eval_text = backslash_escape(get_templates()[template_idx], argsp, argcnt);
-	DBGP("substituted %s, output is '%s'", tmpl, eval_text);
-	free(args_dup);
-	for (i = 0; i < argcnt; i++)
-		free(argsp[i]);
-	free(argsp);
-	return eval_text;
-}
-
-static char *find_and_replace_templates(const char *inbuf)
-{
-	char *outbuf, *indup, *p, *o, *templ, *args, *tmpl_out;
-	int stack, outlen;
-
-	outlen = strlen(inbuf) + 1;
-	o = outbuf = calloc(outlen, sizeof(char));
-	memset(outbuf, 0, outlen * sizeof(char));
-
-	p = indup = strdup(inbuf);
-	while (*p) {
-		while (*p && *p != '$')
-			*(o++) = *(p++);
-
-		if (!(*p))
-			break;
-
-		if (strncmp(p, "$template", 9) && strncmp(p, "${template", 10)) {
-			*(o++) = *(p++);
-			continue;
-		}
-
-		if (*(p + 1) == '{') {
-			p += 2;
-			templ = p;
-			while (*p && !isspace(*p) && *p != '{' && *p != '}')
-				p++;
-			if (*p == '}')
-				args = NULL;
-			else
-				args = p;
-
-			stack = 1;
-			while (*p && stack > 0) {
-				if (*p == '{')
-					stack++;
-				else if (*p == '}')
-					stack--;
-				p++;
-			}
-			if (stack == 0) {
-				// stack is empty. that means the previous char was }, so we zero it
-				*(p - 1) = '\0';
-			} else {
-				// we ran into the end of string without finding a closing }, bark
-				CRIT_ERR(NULL, NULL, "cannot find a closing '}' in template expansion");
-			}
-		} else {
-			templ = p + 1;
-			while (*p && !isspace(*p))
-				p++;
-			args = NULL;
-		}
-		tmpl_out = handle_template(templ, args);
-		if (tmpl_out) {
-			outlen += strlen(tmpl_out);
-			*o = '\0';
-			outbuf = realloc(outbuf, outlen * sizeof(char));
-			strcat (outbuf, tmpl_out);
-			free(tmpl_out);
-			o = outbuf + strlen(outbuf);
-		} else {
-			NORM_ERR("failed to handle template '%s' with args '%s'", templ, args);
-		}
-	}
-	*o = '\0';
-	outbuf = realloc(outbuf, (strlen(outbuf) + 1) * sizeof(char));
-	free(indup);
-	return outbuf;
-}
-
-static int text_contains_templates(const char *text)
-{
-	if (strcasestr(text, "${template") != NULL)
-		return 1;
-	if (strcasestr(text, "$template") != NULL)
-		return 1;
-	return 0;
-}
-
 /*
  * - assumes that *string is '#'
  * - removes the part from '#' to the end of line ('\n' or '\0')
diff --git a/src/template.c b/src/template.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b98166ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/template.c
@@ -0,0 +1,270 @@
+/* -*- mode: c; c-basic-offset: 4; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: t -*-
+ *
+ * Conky, a system monitor, based on torsmo
+ *
+ * Any original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license
+ *
+ * All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed under the GPL
+ *
+ * Please see COPYING for details
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2004, Hannu Saransaari and Lauri Hakkarainen
+ * Copyright (c) 2005-2009 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al.
+ *	(see AUTHORS)
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * vim: ts=4 sw=4 noet ai cindent syntax=c
+ *
+ */
+#include "conky.h"
+#include "logging.h"
+#include <ctype.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+/* The templates defined by the user.
+ *
+ * This is a 1 to 1 mapping from templateN config option to template[N] field. */
+static char *template[MAX_TEMPLATES];
+
+/* free all templates
+ *
+ * On first invocation, just memset all pointers to zero, so this function can
+ * be used when initialising data upon startup. */
+void free_templates(void)
+{
+	int i;
+	static int initialised = 0;
+
+	if (!initialised) {
+		memset(template, 0, MAX_TEMPLATES * sizeof(char *));
+		initialised = 1;
+		return;
+	}
+
+	for (i = 0; i < MAX_TEMPLATES; i++) {
+		if (template[i]) {
+			free(template[i]);
+			template[i] = NULL;
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+/* set the value of template at index n
+ *
+ * Returns non-zero on illegal arguments passed, zero otherwise. */
+int set_template(int n, const char *val)
+{
+	if (n < 0 || n >= MAX_TEMPLATES || !val)
+		return 1;
+	if (template[n])
+		free(template[n]);
+	template[n] = strdup(val);
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/* backslash_escape - do the actual substitution task for template objects
+ *
+ * The field templates is used for substituting the \N occurences. Set it to
+ * NULL to leave them as they are.
+ */
+static char *backslash_escape(const char *src, char **templates, unsigned int template_count)
+{
+	char *src_dup;
+	const char *p;
+	unsigned int dup_idx = 0, dup_len;
+
+	dup_len = strlen(src) + 1;
+	src_dup = malloc(dup_len * sizeof(char));
+
+	p = src;
+	while (*p) {
+		switch (*p) {
+		case '\\':
+			if (!*(p + 1))
+				break;
+			if (*(p + 1) == '\\') {
+				src_dup[dup_idx++] = '\\';
+				p++;
+			} else if (*(p + 1) == ' ') {
+				src_dup[dup_idx++] = ' ';
+				p++;
+			} else if (*(p + 1) == 'n') {
+				src_dup[dup_idx++] = '\n';
+				p++;
+			} else if (templates) {
+				unsigned int tmpl_num;
+				int digits;
+				if ((sscanf(p + 1, "%u%n", &tmpl_num, &digits) <= 0) ||
+				    (tmpl_num > template_count))
+					break;
+				dup_len += strlen(templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
+				src_dup = realloc(src_dup, dup_len * sizeof(char));
+				sprintf(src_dup + dup_idx, "%s", templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
+				dup_idx += strlen(templates[tmpl_num - 1]);
+				p += digits;
+			}
+			break;
+		default:
+			src_dup[dup_idx++] = *p;
+			break;
+		}
+		p++;
+	}
+	src_dup[dup_idx] = '\0';
+	src_dup = realloc(src_dup, (strlen(src_dup) + 1) * sizeof(char));
+	return src_dup;
+}
+
+/* handle_template_object - core logic of the template object
+ *
+ * use config variables like this:
+ * template1 = "$\1\2"
+ * template2 = "\1: ${fs_bar 4,100 \2} ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2}"
+ *
+ * and use them like this:
+ * ${template1 node name}
+ * ${template2 root /}
+ * ${template2 cdrom /mnt/cdrom}
+ */
+static char *handle_template(const char *tmpl, const char *args)
+{
+	char *args_dup = NULL;
+	char *p, *p_old;
+	char **argsp = NULL;
+	unsigned int argcnt = 0, template_idx, i;
+	char *eval_text;
+
+	if ((sscanf(tmpl, "template%u", &template_idx) != 1) ||
+	    (template_idx >= MAX_TEMPLATES))
+		return NULL;
+
+	if(args) {
+		args_dup = strdup(args);
+		p = args_dup;
+		while (*p) {
+			while (*p && (*p == ' ' && (p == args_dup || *(p - 1) != '\\')))
+				p++;
+			if (p > args_dup && *(p - 1) == '\\')
+				p--;
+			p_old = p;
+			while (*p && (*p != ' ' || (p > args_dup && *(p - 1) == '\\')))
+				p++;
+			if (*p) {
+				(*p) = '\0';
+				p++;
+			}
+			argsp = realloc(argsp, ++argcnt * sizeof(char *));
+			argsp[argcnt - 1] = p_old;
+		}
+		for (i = 0; i < argcnt; i++) {
+			char *tmp;
+			tmp = backslash_escape(argsp[i], NULL, 0);
+			DBGP2("%s: substituted arg '%s' to '%s'", tmpl, argsp[i], tmp);
+			argsp[i] = tmp;
+		}
+	}
+
+	eval_text = backslash_escape(template[template_idx], argsp, argcnt);
+	DBGP("substituted %s, output is '%s'", tmpl, eval_text);
+	free(args_dup);
+	for (i = 0; i < argcnt; i++)
+		free(argsp[i]);
+	free(argsp);
+	return eval_text;
+}
+
+/* Search inbuf and replace all found template object references
+ * with the substituted value. */
+char *find_and_replace_templates(const char *inbuf)
+{
+	char *outbuf, *indup, *p, *o, *templ, *args, *tmpl_out;
+	int stack, outlen;
+
+	outlen = strlen(inbuf) + 1;
+	o = outbuf = calloc(outlen, sizeof(char));
+	memset(outbuf, 0, outlen * sizeof(char));
+
+	p = indup = strdup(inbuf);
+	while (*p) {
+		while (*p && *p != '$')
+			*(o++) = *(p++);
+
+		if (!(*p))
+			break;
+
+		if (strncmp(p, "$template", 9) && strncmp(p, "${template", 10)) {
+			*(o++) = *(p++);
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		if (*(p + 1) == '{') {
+			p += 2;
+			templ = p;
+			while (*p && !isspace(*p) && *p != '{' && *p != '}')
+				p++;
+			if (*p == '}')
+				args = NULL;
+			else
+				args = p;
+
+			stack = 1;
+			while (*p && stack > 0) {
+				if (*p == '{')
+					stack++;
+				else if (*p == '}')
+					stack--;
+				p++;
+			}
+			if (stack == 0) {
+				// stack is empty. that means the previous char was }, so we zero it
+				*(p - 1) = '\0';
+			} else {
+				// we ran into the end of string without finding a closing }, bark
+				CRIT_ERR(NULL, NULL, "cannot find a closing '}' in template expansion");
+			}
+		} else {
+			templ = p + 1;
+			while (*p && !isspace(*p))
+				p++;
+			args = NULL;
+		}
+		tmpl_out = handle_template(templ, args);
+		if (tmpl_out) {
+			outlen += strlen(tmpl_out);
+			*o = '\0';
+			outbuf = realloc(outbuf, outlen * sizeof(char));
+			strcat (outbuf, tmpl_out);
+			free(tmpl_out);
+			o = outbuf + strlen(outbuf);
+		} else {
+			NORM_ERR("failed to handle template '%s' with args '%s'", templ, args);
+		}
+	}
+	*o = '\0';
+	outbuf = realloc(outbuf, (strlen(outbuf) + 1) * sizeof(char));
+	free(indup);
+	return outbuf;
+}
+
+/* check text for any template object references */
+int text_contains_templates(const char *text)
+{
+	if (strcasestr(text, "${template") != NULL)
+		return 1;
+	if (strcasestr(text, "$template") != NULL)
+		return 1;
+	return 0;
+}
+
diff --git a/src/template.h b/src/template.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..81b3e9e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/template.h
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/* -*- mode: c; c-basic-offset: 4; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: t -*-
+ *
+ * Conky, a system monitor, based on torsmo
+ *
+ * Any original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license
+ *
+ * All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed under the GPL
+ *
+ * Please see COPYING for details
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2004, Hannu Saransaari and Lauri Hakkarainen
+ * Copyright (c) 2005-2009 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al.
+ *	(see AUTHORS)
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * vim: ts=4 sw=4 noet ai cindent syntax=c
+ *
+ */
+
+#ifndef _TEMPLATE_H
+#define _TEMPLATE_H
+
+void free_templates(void);
+int set_template(int, const char *);
+
+char *find_and_replace_templates(const char *);
+int text_contains_templates(const char *);
+
+#endif /* _TEMPLATE_H */