diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py b/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
index d8b0cee70a1..c32e3e49f78 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
@@ -328,6 +328,8 @@ class GalaxyCLI(CLI):
                     self.display.deprecated("going forward only the yaml format will be supported")
                     # roles listed in a file, one per line
                     for rline in f.readlines():
+                        if rline.startswith("#") or rline.strip() == '':
+                            continue
                         self.display.debug('found role %s in text file' % str(rline))
                         role = RoleRequirement.role_yaml_parse(rline.strip())
                         roles_left.append(GalaxyRole(self.galaxy, **role))
diff --git a/test/integration/galaxy_rolesfile b/test/integration/galaxy_rolesfile
index 0caf1c25336..b78cdc11481 100644
--- a/test/integration/galaxy_rolesfile
+++ b/test/integration/galaxy_rolesfile
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
+# deliberate non-empty whitespace line to follow
+    
+
 git+https://bitbucket.org/willthames/git-ansible-galaxy,v1.6
 hg+https://bitbucket.org/willthames/hg-ansible-galaxy
 https://bitbucket.org/willthames/http-ansible-galaxy/get/master.tar.gz,,http-role
+# comment
 git+git@github.com:geerlingguy/ansible-role-php.git