[PATCH v3] checkpatch: suppress strscpy warnings for userspace tools

From: Suchit Karunakaran
Date: Tue Jul 29 2025 - 13:24:58 EST


The checkpatch.pl script currently warns against the use of strcpy,
strlcpy, and strncpy, recommending strscpy as a safer alternative.
However, these warnings are also triggered for code under tools/ and
scripts/, which are userspace utilities where strscpy is not available.
This patch suppresses these warnings for files in tools/ and scripts/.

Signed-off-by: Suchit Karunakaran <suchitkarunakaran@xxxxxxxxx>
---

Changes since v1:
- Create is_userspace function to check if the file is in userspace
directories

Changes since v2:
- Change regex pattern to match top level directories only

scripts/checkpatch.pl | 12 ++++++++----
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index e722dd6fa8ef..fe580b0810f9 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -2636,6 +2636,11 @@ sub exclude_global_initialisers {
$realfile =~ m@/bpf/.*\.bpf\.c$@;
}

+sub is_userspace {
+ my ($realfile) = @_;
+ return ($realfile =~ m@^tools/@ || $realfile =~ m@^scripts/@);
+}
+
sub process {
my $filename = shift;

@@ -7018,21 +7023,20 @@ sub process {
# }
# }
# }
-
# strcpy uses that should likely be strscpy
- if ($line =~ /\bstrcpy\s*\(/) {
+ if ($line =~ /\bstrcpy\s*\(/ && !is_userspace($realfile)) {
WARN("STRCPY",
"Prefer strscpy over strcpy - see: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/88\n"; . $herecurr);
}

# strlcpy uses that should likely be strscpy
- if ($line =~ /\bstrlcpy\s*\(/) {
+ if ($line =~ /\bstrlcpy\s*\(/ && !is_userspace($realfile)) {
WARN("STRLCPY",
"Prefer strscpy over strlcpy - see: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/89\n"; . $herecurr);
}

# strncpy uses that should likely be strscpy or strscpy_pad
- if ($line =~ /\bstrncpy\s*\(/) {
+ if ($line =~ /\bstrncpy\s*\(/ && !is_userspace($realfile)) {
WARN("STRNCPY",
"Prefer strscpy, strscpy_pad, or __nonstring over strncpy - see: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90\n"; . $herecurr);
}
--
2.50.1