diff --git a/Documentation/gpio/consumer.txt b/Documentation/gpio/consumer.txt
index 05676fdacfe3..912568baabb9 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpio/consumer.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gpio/consumer.txt
@@ -70,6 +70,12 @@ instead of -ENOENT if no GPIO has been assigned to the requested function:
 						   unsigned int index,
 						   enum gpiod_flags flags)
 
+Note that gpio_get*_optional() functions (and their managed variants), unlike
+the rest of gpiolib API, also return NULL when gpiolib support is disabled.
+This is helpful to driver authors, since they do not need to special case
+-ENOSYS return codes.  System integrators should however be careful to enable
+gpiolib on systems that need it.
+
 For a function using multiple GPIOs all of those can be obtained with one call:
 
 	struct gpio_descs *gpiod_get_array(struct device *dev,
diff --git a/include/linux/gpio/consumer.h b/include/linux/gpio/consumer.h
index 2484b2fcc6eb..13daf08e25bb 100644
--- a/include/linux/gpio/consumer.h
+++ b/include/linux/gpio/consumer.h
@@ -179,14 +179,14 @@ static inline struct gpio_desc *__must_check
 gpiod_get_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 		   enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline struct gpio_desc *__must_check
 gpiod_get_index_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 			 unsigned int index, enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline struct gpio_descs *__must_check
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ static inline struct gpio_descs *__must_check
 gpiod_get_array_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 			 enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline void gpiod_put(struct gpio_desc *desc)
@@ -240,14 +240,14 @@ static inline struct gpio_desc *__must_check
 devm_gpiod_get_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 			  enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline struct gpio_desc *__must_check
 devm_gpiod_get_index_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 				unsigned int index, enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline struct gpio_descs *__must_check
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ static inline struct gpio_descs *__must_check
 devm_gpiod_get_array_optional(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 			      enum gpiod_flags flags)
 {
-	return ERR_PTR(-ENOSYS);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 static inline void devm_gpiod_put(struct device *dev, struct gpio_desc *desc)