diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 4cf4473ebf17cfc433c5ebc3e0d02e8567d9195f..daf466d26a4bd4b238aef59317be814e5125cc2d 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -1954,6 +1954,7 @@ sub process {
 	my $in_header_lines = $file ? 0 : 1;
 	my $in_commit_log = 0;		#Scanning lines before patch
 	my $commit_log_long_line = 0;
+	my $commit_log_has_diff = 0;
 	my $reported_maintainer_file = 0;
 	my $non_utf8_charset = 0;
 
@@ -2087,7 +2088,8 @@ sub process {
 		my $rawline = $rawlines[$linenr - 1];
 
 #extract the line range in the file after the patch is applied
-		if ($line=~/^\@\@ -\d+(?:,\d+)? \+(\d+)(,(\d+))? \@\@/) {
+		if (!$in_commit_log &&
+		    $line =~ /^\@\@ -\d+(?:,\d+)? \+(\d+)(,(\d+))? \@\@/) {
 			$is_patch = 1;
 			$first_line = $linenr + 1;
 			$realline=$1-1;
@@ -2181,6 +2183,17 @@ sub process {
 
 		$cnt_lines++ if ($realcnt != 0);
 
+# Check if the commit log has what seems like a diff which can confuse patch
+		if ($in_commit_log && !$commit_log_has_diff &&
+		    (($line =~ m@^\s+diff\b.*a/[\w/]+@ &&
+		      $line =~ m@^\s+diff\b.*a/([\w/]+)\s+b/$1\b@) ||
+		     $line =~ m@^\s*(?:\-\-\-\s+a/|\+\+\+\s+b/)@ ||
+		     $line =~ m/^\s*\@\@ \-\d+,\d+ \+\d+,\d+ \@\@/)) {
+			ERROR("DIFF_IN_COMMIT_MSG",
+			      "Avoid using diff content in the commit message - patch(1) might not work\n" . $herecurr);
+			$commit_log_has_diff = 1;
+		}
+
 # Check for incorrect file permissions
 		if ($line =~ /^new (file )?mode.*[7531]\d{0,2}$/) {
 			my $permhere = $here . "FILE: $realfile\n";