[PATCH v2] checkpatch: suppress strscpy warnings for userspace tools

From: Suchit Karunakaran
Date: Sun Jul 27 2025 - 08:51:09 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
---
scripts/checkpatch.pl | 10 +++++++---
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index e722dd6fa8ef..472cd8aac9c3 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -7019,20 +7019,24 @@ sub process {
# }
# }

+ sub is_userspace {
+ my ($file) = @_;
+ return ($file =~ m@\btools/@ || $file =~ m@\bscripts/@);
+ }
# strcpy uses that should likely be strscpy
- if ($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