diff --git a/lib/Kconfig b/lib/Kconfig
index 03c2c24b9083c17aff9372224ec2b22912691ffb..cea9e30a88ff2b26f5b2535f31f227c91ac5625a 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig
+++ b/lib/Kconfig
@@ -174,4 +174,10 @@ config DISABLE_OBSOLETE_CPUMASK_FUNCTIONS
        bool "Disable obsolete cpumask functions" if DEBUG_PER_CPU_MAPS
        depends on EXPERIMENTAL && BROKEN
 
+#
+# Netlink attribute parsing support is select'ed if needed
+#
+config NLATTR
+	bool
+
 endmenu
diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
index 32b0e64ded27d7c1f614fdc974d0857abfc19bbc..b2c09da02cae13fa974ec949600dee89ff7a0f66 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile
+++ b/lib/Makefile
@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_TRACEHOOK) += syscall.o
 
 obj-$(CONFIG_DYNAMIC_PRINTK_DEBUG) += dynamic_printk.o
 
+obj-$(CONFIG_NLATTR) += nlattr.o
+
 hostprogs-y	:= gen_crc32table
 clean-files	:= crc32table.h
 
diff --git a/net/netlink/attr.c b/lib/nlattr.c
similarity index 100%
rename from net/netlink/attr.c
rename to lib/nlattr.c
diff --git a/net/Kconfig b/net/Kconfig
index cdb8fdef6c4aaac30b1ba6cf5ace134ea6bfcb89..eab40a481356cdeebafe444b304c0ef83a0de8cd 100644
--- a/net/Kconfig
+++ b/net/Kconfig
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 menuconfig NET
 	bool "Networking support"
+	select NLATTR
 	---help---
 	  Unless you really know what you are doing, you should say Y here.
 	  The reason is that some programs need kernel networking support even
diff --git a/net/netlink/Makefile b/net/netlink/Makefile
index e3589c2de49e9b5e6c76c1d4a4e02a58dda5dd46..bdd6ddf4e95beb401ddd883f7caa00b9be389b9d 100644
--- a/net/netlink/Makefile
+++ b/net/netlink/Makefile
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 # Makefile for the netlink driver.
 #
 
-obj-y  				:= af_netlink.o attr.o genetlink.o
+obj-y  				:= af_netlink.o genetlink.o