diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
index c2588a2d7b1e..40e79f88c3cd 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile
+++ b/lib/Makefile
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ lib-y := ctype.o string.o vsprintf.o cmdline.o \
 	 flex_proportions.o ratelimit.o show_mem.o \
 	 is_single_threaded.o plist.o decompress.o kobject_uevent.o \
 	 earlycpio.o seq_buf.o siphash.o dec_and_lock.o \
-	 nmi_backtrace.o nodemask.o win_minmax.o
+	 nmi_backtrace.o nodemask.o win_minmax.o memcat_p.o
 
 lib-$(CONFIG_PRINTK) += dump_stack.o
 lib-$(CONFIG_MMU) += ioremap.o
diff --git a/lib/memcat_p.c b/lib/memcat_p.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b810fbc66962
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/memcat_p.c
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+#include <linux/slab.h>
+
+/*
+ * Merge two NULL-terminated pointer arrays into a newly allocated
+ * array, which is also NULL-terminated. Nomenclature is inspired by
+ * memset_p() and memcat() found elsewhere in the kernel source tree.
+ */
+void **__memcat_p(void **a, void **b)
+{
+	void **p = a, **new;
+	int nr;
+
+	/* count the elements in both arrays */
+	for (nr = 0, p = a; *p; nr++, p++)
+		;
+	for (p = b; *p; nr++, p++)
+		;
+	/* one for the NULL-terminator */
+	nr++;
+
+	new = kmalloc_array(nr, sizeof(void *), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!new)
+		return NULL;
+
+	/* nr -> last index; p points to NULL in b[] */
+	for (nr--; nr >= 0; nr--, p = p == b ? &a[nr] : p - 1)
+		new[nr] = *p;
+
+	return new;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__memcat_p);
+
diff --git a/lib/string.c b/lib/string.c
index 453f35994eb6..38e4ca08e757 100644
--- a/lib/string.c
+++ b/lib/string.c
@@ -891,36 +891,6 @@ void *memscan(void *addr, int c, size_t size)
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(memscan);
 #endif
 
-/*
- * Merge two NULL-terminated pointer arrays into a newly allocated
- * array, which is also NULL-terminated. Nomenclature is inspired by
- * memset_p() and memcat() found elsewhere in the kernel source tree.
- */
-void **__memcat_p(void **a, void **b)
-{
-	void **p = a, **new;
-	int nr;
-
-	/* count the elements in both arrays */
-	for (nr = 0, p = a; *p; nr++, p++)
-		;
-	for (p = b; *p; nr++, p++)
-		;
-	/* one for the NULL-terminator */
-	nr++;
-
-	new = kmalloc_array(nr, sizeof(void *), GFP_KERNEL);
-	if (!new)
-		return NULL;
-
-	/* nr -> last index; p points to NULL in b[] */
-	for (nr--; nr >= 0; nr--, p = p == b ? &a[nr] : p - 1)
-		new[nr] = *p;
-
-	return new;
-}
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__memcat_p);
-
 #ifndef __HAVE_ARCH_STRSTR
 /**
  * strstr - Find the first substring in a %NUL terminated string
diff --git a/lib/test_memcat_p.c b/lib/test_memcat_p.c
index 2b163a749ecb..849c477d49d0 100644
--- a/lib/test_memcat_p.c
+++ b/lib/test_memcat_p.c
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
 /*
- * Test cases for memcat_p() in lib/string.c
+ * Test cases for memcat_p() in lib/memcat_p.c
  */
 #define pr_fmt(fmt) KBUILD_MODNAME ": " fmt