diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index 07f180f95b47..c1613854f38d 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -1525,6 +1525,26 @@ repeat:
 
 }
 
+/* words written to sysfs files may, or my not, be \n terminated.
+ * We want to accept with case. For this we use cmd_match.
+ */
+static int cmd_match(const char *cmd, const char *str)
+{
+	/* See if cmd, written into a sysfs file, matches
+	 * str.  They must either be the same, or cmd can
+	 * have a trailing newline
+	 */
+	while (*cmd && *str && *cmd == *str) {
+		cmd++;
+		str++;
+	}
+	if (*cmd == '\n')
+		cmd++;
+	if (*str || *cmd)
+		return 0;
+	return 1;
+}
+
 struct rdev_sysfs_entry {
 	struct attribute attr;
 	ssize_t (*show)(mdk_rdev_t *, char *);
@@ -1799,7 +1819,7 @@ action_store(mddev_t *mddev, const char *page, size_t len)
 	if (!mddev->pers || !mddev->pers->sync_request)
 		return -EINVAL;
 
-	if (strcmp(page, "idle")==0 || strcmp(page, "idle\n")==0) {
+	if (cmd_match(page, "idle")) {
 		if (mddev->sync_thread) {
 			set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_INTR, &mddev->recovery);
 			md_unregister_thread(mddev->sync_thread);
@@ -1812,13 +1832,12 @@ action_store(mddev_t *mddev, const char *page, size_t len)
 	if (test_bit(MD_RECOVERY_RUNNING, &mddev->recovery) ||
 	    test_bit(MD_RECOVERY_NEEDED, &mddev->recovery))
 		return -EBUSY;
-	if (strcmp(page, "resync")==0 || strcmp(page, "resync\n")==0 ||
-	    strcmp(page, "recover")==0 || strcmp(page, "recover\n")==0)
+	if (cmd_match(page, "resync") || cmd_match(page, "recover"))
 		set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_NEEDED, &mddev->recovery);
 	else {
-		if (strcmp(page, "check")==0 || strcmp(page, "check\n")==0)
+		if (cmd_match(page, "check"))
 			set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_CHECK, &mddev->recovery);
-		else if (strcmp(page, "repair")!=0 && strcmp(page, "repair\n")!=0)
+		else if (cmd_match(page, "repair"))
 			return -EINVAL;
 		set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_REQUESTED, &mddev->recovery);
 		set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_SYNC, &mddev->recovery);