diff --git a/include/linux/string_helpers.h b/include/linux/string_helpers.h
index 9d1f5bb74dd5..58fb1f90eda5 100644
--- a/include/linux/string_helpers.h
+++ b/include/linux/string_helpers.h
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ enum string_size_units {
 	STRING_UNITS_2,		/* use binary powers of 2^10 */
 };
 
-void string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, enum string_size_units units,
-		     char *buf, int len);
+int string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, enum string_size_units units,
+		    char *buf, int len);
 
 int parse_int_array_user(const char __user *from, size_t count, int **array);
 
diff --git a/lib/string_helpers.c b/lib/string_helpers.c
index 9982344cca34..7713f73e66b0 100644
--- a/lib/string_helpers.c
+++ b/lib/string_helpers.c
@@ -31,9 +31,11 @@
  * giving the size in the required units.  @buf should have room for
  * at least 9 bytes and will always be zero terminated.
  *
+ * Return value: number of characters of output that would have been written
+ * (which may be greater than len, if output was truncated).
  */
-void string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, const enum string_size_units units,
-		     char *buf, int len)
+int string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, const enum string_size_units units,
+		    char *buf, int len)
 {
 	static const char *const units_10[] = {
 		"B", "kB", "MB", "GB", "TB", "PB", "EB", "ZB", "YB"
@@ -126,8 +128,8 @@ void string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, const enum string_size_units units,
 	else
 		unit = units_str[units][i];
 
-	snprintf(buf, len, "%u%s %s", (u32)size,
-		 tmp, unit);
+	return snprintf(buf, len, "%u%s %s", (u32)size,
+			tmp, unit);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(string_get_size);