diff --git a/devel/Makefile.am b/devel/Makefile.am
index 42f21be75e..4873dca5f0 100644
--- a/devel/Makefile.am
+++ b/devel/Makefile.am
@@ -1,53 +1,54 @@
 #
 # Copyright 2020 the Pacemaker project contributors
 #
 # The version control history for this file may have further details.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
 # or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
 #
 
 EXTRA_SCRIPTS		= coccinelle/test/testrunner.sh
 EXTRA_DIST		= $(EXTRA_SCRIPTS) \
 				  coccinelle/ref-passed-variables-inited.cocci \
+				  coccinelle/string-empty.cocci \
 				  coccinelle/test/ref-passed-variables-inited.input.c \
 				  coccinelle/test/ref-passed-variables-inited.output
 
 # Coccinelle is a tool that takes special patch-like files (called semantic patches) and
 # applies them throughout a source tree.  This is useful when refactoring, changing APIs,
 # catching dangerous or incorrect code, and other similar tasks.  It's not especially
 # easy to write a semantic patch but most users should only be concerned about running
 # the target and inspecting the results.
 #
 # Documentation (including examples, which are the most useful):
 # http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/documentation.php
 #
 # Run the "make cocci" target to just output what would be done, or "make cocci-inplace"
 # to apply the changes to the source tree.
 #
 # COCCI_FILES may be set on the command line, if you want to test just a single file
 # while it's under development.  Otherwise, it is a list of all the files that are ready
 # to be run.
 #
 # ref-passed-variables-inited.cocci seems to be returning some false positives around
 # GHashTableIters, so it is disabled for the moment.
-COCCI_FILES ?=
+COCCI_FILES ?= coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
 
 cocci:
 	for f in $(COCCI_FILES); do \
 	  for d in daemons include lib tools; do \
 	    test $$d = "include" \
 	      && spatch $(_SPATCH_FLAGS) --include-headers --local-includes \
 	         --preprocess --sp-file $$f --dir ../$$d \
 		  || spatch $(_SPATCH_FLAGS) --local-includes \
 			 --preprocess --sp-file $$f --dir ../$$d; \
 		done; \
 	done
 
 cocci-inplace:
 	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) _SPATCH_FLAGS=--in-place cocci
 
 cocci-test:
 	for f in coccinelle/test/*.c; do \
 		coccinelle/test/testrunner.sh $$f; \
 	done
diff --git a/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci b/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7abd558794
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devel/coccinelle/string-empty.cocci
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2020 the Pacemaker project contributors
+ *
+ * The version control history for this file may have further details.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
+ * or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
+ *
+ * Catch string comparisons where the pcmk__str_empty function could be used
+ * instead.  Note that we are only catching uses involving identifiers (not
+ * expressions), but I think this is probably fine - we are likely not using
+ * the same expression multiple times in a single line of code.  If some are
+ * found, it's easy enough to add another block here.
+ */
+
+@ string_empty @
+identifier I;
+@@
+(
+- (I == NULL) || (strlen(I) == 0)
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
+|
+- (I == NULL) || !strlen(I)
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
+|
+- (I == NULL) || (I[0] == 0)
++ pcmk__str_empty(I)
+)