diff --git a/[refs] b/[refs]
index 9f81340b0322..7cefc35ae9da 100644
--- a/[refs]
+++ b/[refs]
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ---
-refs/heads/master: b9df76ac76da351cd4f6ba52369e9a64e9ab686d
+refs/heads/master: e45bab8ebfee65ba89b228c1e7c64a6cb0812124
diff --git a/trunk/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/trunk/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 95ba30a24dcf..01a65988a057 100755
--- a/trunk/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/trunk/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -2894,6 +2894,12 @@ sub process {
 			{
 			}
 
+			# Flatten any obvious string concatentation.
+			while ($dstat =~ s/("X*")\s*$Ident/$1/ ||
+			       $dstat =~ s/$Ident\s*("X*")/$1/)
+			{
+			}
+
 			my $exceptions = qr{
 				$Declare|
 				module_param_named|