diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.txt
index 8ea3e90ace07..b797ed38de46 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.txt
@@ -180,23 +180,19 @@ output must be passed to the seq_file code. Some utility functions have
 been defined which make this task easy.
 
 Most code will simply use seq_printf(), which works pretty much like
-printk(), but which requires the seq_file pointer as an argument. It is
-common to ignore the return value from seq_printf(), but a function
-producing complicated output may want to check that value and quit if
-something non-zero is returned; an error return means that the seq_file
-buffer has been filled and further output will be discarded.
+printk(), but which requires the seq_file pointer as an argument.
 
 For straight character output, the following functions may be used:
 
-	int seq_putc(struct seq_file *m, char c);
-	int seq_puts(struct seq_file *m, const char *s);
-	int seq_escape(struct seq_file *m, const char *s, const char *esc);
+	seq_putc(struct seq_file *m, char c);
+	seq_puts(struct seq_file *m, const char *s);
+	seq_escape(struct seq_file *m, const char *s, const char *esc);
 
 The first two output a single character and a string, just like one would
 expect. seq_escape() is like seq_puts(), except that any character in s
 which is in the string esc will be represented in octal form in the output.
 
-There is also a pair of functions for printing filenames:
+There are also a pair of functions for printing filenames:
 
 	int seq_path(struct seq_file *m, struct path *path, char *esc);
 	int seq_path_root(struct seq_file *m, struct path *path,
@@ -209,6 +205,14 @@ root is desired, it can be used with seq_path_root().  Note that, if it
 turns out that path cannot be reached from root, the value of root will be
 changed in seq_file_root() to a root which *does* work.
 
+A function producing complicated output may want to check
+	bool seq_has_overflowed(struct seq_file *m);
+and avoid further seq_<output> calls if true is returned.
+
+A true return from seq_has_overflowed means that the seq_file buffer will
+be discarded and the seq_show function will attempt to allocate a larger
+buffer and retry printing.
+
 
 Making it all work
 
diff --git a/fs/seq_file.c b/fs/seq_file.c
index 3857b720cb1b..353948ba1c5b 100644
--- a/fs/seq_file.c
+++ b/fs/seq_file.c
@@ -16,17 +16,6 @@
 #include <asm/uaccess.h>
 #include <asm/page.h>
 
-
-/*
- * seq_files have a buffer which can may overflow. When this happens a larger
- * buffer is reallocated and all the data will be printed again.
- * The overflow state is true when m->count == m->size.
- */
-static bool seq_overflow(struct seq_file *m)
-{
-	return m->count == m->size;
-}
-
 static void seq_set_overflow(struct seq_file *m)
 {
 	m->count = m->size;
@@ -124,7 +113,7 @@ static int traverse(struct seq_file *m, loff_t offset)
 			error = 0;
 			m->count = 0;
 		}
-		if (seq_overflow(m))
+		if (seq_has_overflowed(m))
 			goto Eoverflow;
 		if (pos + m->count > offset) {
 			m->from = offset - pos;
@@ -267,7 +256,7 @@ ssize_t seq_read(struct file *file, char __user *buf, size_t size, loff_t *ppos)
 			break;
 		}
 		err = m->op->show(m, p);
-		if (seq_overflow(m) || err) {
+		if (seq_has_overflowed(m) || err) {
 			m->count = offs;
 			if (likely(err <= 0))
 				break;
diff --git a/include/linux/seq_file.h b/include/linux/seq_file.h
index 52e0097f61f0..cf6a9daaaf6d 100644
--- a/include/linux/seq_file.h
+++ b/include/linux/seq_file.h
@@ -42,6 +42,21 @@ struct seq_operations {
 
 #define SEQ_SKIP 1
 
+/**
+ * seq_has_overflowed - check if the buffer has overflowed
+ * @m: the seq_file handle
+ *
+ * seq_files have a buffer which may overflow. When this happens a larger
+ * buffer is reallocated and all the data will be printed again.
+ * The overflow state is true when m->count == m->size.
+ *
+ * Returns true if the buffer received more than it can hold.
+ */
+static inline bool seq_has_overflowed(struct seq_file *m)
+{
+	return m->count == m->size;
+}
+
 /**
  * seq_get_buf - get buffer to write arbitrary data to
  * @m: the seq_file handle