diff --git a/criu/include/asm-generic/string.h b/criu/include/asm-generic/string.h
index 1448a3200..ff91968a0 100644
--- a/criu/include/asm-generic/string.h
+++ b/criu/include/asm-generic/string.h
@@ -3,8 +3,16 @@
 
 #include "common/compiler.h"
 
+/* C compiler may generate calls to memcmp, memset, memcpy and memmove,
+ * so it relies on those to be available during linking.
+ * In case we are not linking our code against glibc, we set CR_NOGLIBC
+ * and have to provide our own implementations of mem*() functions.
+ *
+ * For now, not having memmove() seems OK for both gcc and clang.
+ */
+
 #ifndef HAS_BUILTIN_MEMCPY
-static always_inline void *builtin_memcpy(void *to, const void *from, size_t n)
+static __maybe_unused void *builtin_memcpy(void *to, const void *from, size_t n)
 {
 	size_t i;
 	unsigned char *cto = to;
@@ -16,10 +24,14 @@ static always_inline void *builtin_memcpy(void *to, const void *from, size_t n)
 
 	return to;
 }
+#ifdef CR_NOGLIBC
+void *memcpy(void *to, const void *from, size_t n)	\
+	     __attribute__ ((weak, alias ("builtin_memcpy")));
+#endif
 #endif
 
 #ifndef HAS_BUILTIN_MEMCMP
-static always_inline int builtin_memcmp(const void *cs, const void *ct, size_t count)
+static __maybe_unused int builtin_memcmp(const void *cs, const void *ct, size_t count)
 {
 	const unsigned char *su1, *su2;
 	int res = 0;
@@ -29,6 +41,10 @@ static always_inline int builtin_memcmp(const void *cs, const void *ct, size_t c
 			break;
 	return res;
 }
+#ifdef CR_NOGLIBC
+int memcmp(const void *cs, const void *ct, size_t count)	\
+	     __attribute__ ((weak, alias ("builtin_memcmp")));
+#endif
 #endif
 
 #ifndef HAS_BUILTIN_STRNCMP
@@ -47,7 +63,7 @@ static always_inline int builtin_strncmp(const char *cs, const char *ct, size_t
 #endif
 
 #ifndef HAS_BUILTIN_MEMSET
-static always_inline void *builtin_memset(void *s, const int c, size_t count)
+static __maybe_unused void *builtin_memset(void *s, const int c, size_t count)
 {
 	char *dest = s;
 	size_t i = 0;
@@ -57,6 +73,10 @@ static always_inline void *builtin_memset(void *s, const int c, size_t count)
 
 	return s;
 }
+#ifdef CR_NOGLIBC
+void *memset(void *s, const int c, size_t count)	\
+	     __attribute__ ((weak, alias ("builtin_memset")));
+#endif
 #endif
 
 #endif /* __CR_ASM_GENERIC_STRING_H__ */