diff --git a/scripts/Kbuild.include b/scripts/Kbuild.include
index 547e15daf03d..93a0da26582b 100644
--- a/scripts/Kbuild.include
+++ b/scripts/Kbuild.include
@@ -155,6 +155,15 @@ ld-option = $(call try-run,\
 # Important: no spaces around options
 ar-option = $(call try-run, $(AR) rc$(1) "$$TMP",$(1),$(2))
 
+# ld-version
+# Usage: $(call ld-version)
+# Note this is mainly for HJ Lu's 3 number binutil versions
+ld-version = $(shell $(LD) --version | $(srctree)/scripts/ld-version.sh)
+
+# ld-ifversion
+# Usage:  $(call ld-ifversion, -ge, 22252, y)
+ld-ifversion = $(shell [ $(call ld-version) $(1) $(2) ] && echo $(3))
+
 ######
 
 ###
diff --git a/scripts/ld-version.sh b/scripts/ld-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..198580d245e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ld-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/usr/bin/awk -f
+# extract linker version number from stdin and turn into single number
+	{
+	gsub(".*)", "");
+	split($1,a, ".");
+	print a[1]*10000000 + a[2]*100000 + a[3]*10000 + a[4]*100 + a[5];
+	exit
+	}