diff --git a/include/linux/ucs2_string.h b/include/linux/ucs2_string.h
index c499ae809c7d..74f23ca5a967 100644
--- a/include/linux/ucs2_string.h
+++ b/include/linux/ucs2_string.h
@@ -14,7 +14,16 @@ ssize_t ucs2_strscpy(ucs2_char_t *dst, const ucs2_char_t *src, size_t count);
 int ucs2_strncmp(const ucs2_char_t *a, const ucs2_char_t *b, size_t len);
 
 unsigned long ucs2_utf8size(const ucs2_char_t *src);
+unsigned long
+ucs2_as_utf8_l(u8 *dest, const ucs2_char_t *src, unsigned long limit,
+	       unsigned long maxlength);
+
+static inline
 unsigned long ucs2_as_utf8(u8 *dest, const ucs2_char_t *src,
-			   unsigned long maxlength);
+			   unsigned long maxlength)
+{
+	return ucs2_as_utf8_l(dest, src, ucs2_strnlen(src, maxlength),
+			      maxlength);
+}
 
 #endif /* _LINUX_UCS2_STRING_H_ */
diff --git a/lib/ucs2_string.c b/lib/ucs2_string.c
index 185378e64d2e..32e167332840 100644
--- a/lib/ucs2_string.c
+++ b/lib/ucs2_string.c
@@ -123,18 +123,19 @@ ucs2_utf8size(const ucs2_char_t *src)
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(ucs2_utf8size);
 
 /*
- * copy at most maxlength bytes of whole utf8 characters to dest from the
- * ucs2 string src.
+ * Copy at most @limit whole utf8 characters to @dest from the ucs2 string
+ * @src, using no more than @maxlength bytes of buffer space.
  *
- * The return value is the number of characters copied, not including the
- * final NUL character.
+ * The return value is the number of bytes copied, not including the final NUL
+ * character. No NUL character will be appended if the output length equals
+ * @maxlength.
  */
 unsigned long
-ucs2_as_utf8(u8 *dest, const ucs2_char_t *src, unsigned long maxlength)
+ucs2_as_utf8_l(u8 *dest, const ucs2_char_t *src, unsigned long limit,
+	       unsigned long maxlength)
 {
 	unsigned int i;
 	unsigned long j = 0;
-	unsigned long limit = ucs2_strnlen(src, maxlength);
 
 	for (i = 0; maxlength && i < limit; i++) {
 		u16 c = src[i];
@@ -161,7 +162,7 @@ ucs2_as_utf8(u8 *dest, const ucs2_char_t *src, unsigned long maxlength)
 		dest[j] = '\0';
 	return j;
 }
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(ucs2_as_utf8);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(ucs2_as_utf8_l);
 
 #ifndef __DISABLE_EXPORTS
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("UCS2 string handling");