diff --git a/kernel/printk/printk.c b/kernel/printk/printk.c
index 6f598f92f2a1..32ad0c7a0cd3 100644
--- a/kernel/printk/printk.c
+++ b/kernel/printk/printk.c
@@ -828,15 +828,21 @@ void log_buf_kexec_setup(void)
 /* requested log_buf_len from kernel cmdline */
 static unsigned long __initdata new_log_buf_len;
 
+/* we practice scaling the ring buffer by powers of 2 */
+static void __init log_buf_len_update(unsigned size)
+{
+	if (size)
+		size = roundup_pow_of_two(size);
+	if (size > log_buf_len)
+		new_log_buf_len = size;
+}
+
 /* save requested log_buf_len since it's too early to process it */
 static int __init log_buf_len_setup(char *str)
 {
 	unsigned size = memparse(str, &str);
 
-	if (size)
-		size = roundup_pow_of_two(size);
-	if (size > log_buf_len)
-		new_log_buf_len = size;
+	log_buf_len_update(size);
 
 	return 0;
 }