diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt b/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
index 3f429ed8b3b8..e9f9e767f82a 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
@@ -174,6 +174,19 @@ Searching in menuconfig:
 
 		/^hotplug
 
+	When searching, symbols are sorted thus:
+	  - exact match first: an exact match is when the search matches
+	    the complete symbol name;
+	  - alphabetical order: when two symbols do not match exactly,
+	    they are sorted in alphabetical order (in the user's current
+	    locale).
+	For example: ^ATH.K matches:
+	    ATH5K ATH9K ATH5K_AHB ATH5K_DEBUG [...] ATH6KL ATH6KL_DEBUG
+	    [...] ATH9K_AHB ATH9K_BTCOEX_SUPPORT ATH9K_COMMON [...]
+	of which only ATH5K and ATH9K match exactly and so are sorted
+	first (and in alphabetical order), then come all other symbols,
+	sorted in alphabetical order.
+
 ______________________________________________________________________
 User interface options for 'menuconfig'
 
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c b/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
index ab8f4c835933..387d55483882 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
@@ -954,38 +954,98 @@ const char *sym_escape_string_value(const char *in)
 	return res;
 }
 
+struct sym_match {
+	struct symbol	*sym;
+	off_t		so, eo;
+};
+
+/* Compare matched symbols as thus:
+ * - first, symbols that match exactly
+ * - then, alphabetical sort
+ */
+static int sym_rel_comp( const void *sym1, const void *sym2 )
+{
+	struct sym_match *s1 = *(struct sym_match **)sym1;
+	struct sym_match *s2 = *(struct sym_match **)sym2;
+	int l1, l2;
+
+	/* Exact match:
+	 * - if matched length on symbol s1 is the length of that symbol,
+	 *   then this symbol should come first;
+	 * - if matched length on symbol s2 is the length of that symbol,
+	 *   then this symbol should come first.
+	 * Note: since the search can be a regexp, both symbols may match
+	 * exactly; if this is the case, we can't decide which comes first,
+	 * and we fallback to sorting alphabetically.
+	 */
+	l1 = s1->eo - s1->so;
+	l2 = s2->eo - s2->so;
+	if (l1 == strlen(s1->sym->name) && l2 != strlen(s2->sym->name))
+		return -1;
+	if (l1 != strlen(s1->sym->name) && l2 == strlen(s2->sym->name))
+		return 1;
+
+	/* As a fallback, sort symbols alphabetically */
+	return strcmp(s1->sym->name, s2->sym->name);
+}
+
 struct symbol **sym_re_search(const char *pattern)
 {
 	struct symbol *sym, **sym_arr = NULL;
+	struct sym_match **sym_match_arr = NULL;
 	int i, cnt, size;
 	regex_t re;
+	regmatch_t match[1];
 
 	cnt = size = 0;
 	/* Skip if empty */
 	if (strlen(pattern) == 0)
 		return NULL;
-	if (regcomp(&re, pattern, REG_EXTENDED|REG_NOSUB|REG_ICASE))
+	if (regcomp(&re, pattern, REG_EXTENDED|REG_ICASE))
 		return NULL;
 
 	for_all_symbols(i, sym) {
+		struct sym_match *tmp_sym_match;
 		if (sym->flags & SYMBOL_CONST || !sym->name)
 			continue;
-		if (regexec(&re, sym->name, 0, NULL, 0))
+		if (regexec(&re, sym->name, 1, match, 0))
 			continue;
 		if (cnt + 1 >= size) {
-			void *tmp = sym_arr;
+			void *tmp;
 			size += 16;
-			sym_arr = realloc(sym_arr, size * sizeof(struct symbol *));
-			if (!sym_arr) {
-				free(tmp);
-				return NULL;
+			tmp = realloc(sym_match_arr, size * sizeof(struct sym_match *));
+			if (!tmp) {
+				goto sym_re_search_free;
 			}
+			sym_match_arr = tmp;
 		}
 		sym_calc_value(sym);
-		sym_arr[cnt++] = sym;
+		tmp_sym_match = (struct sym_match*)malloc(sizeof(struct sym_match));
+		if (!tmp_sym_match)
+			goto sym_re_search_free;
+		tmp_sym_match->sym = sym;
+		/* As regexec return 0, we know we have a match, so
+		 * we can use match[0].rm_[se]o without further checks
+		 */
+		tmp_sym_match->so = match[0].rm_so;
+		tmp_sym_match->eo = match[0].rm_eo;
+		sym_match_arr[cnt++] = tmp_sym_match;
 	}
-	if (sym_arr)
+	if (sym_match_arr) {
+		qsort(sym_match_arr, cnt, sizeof(struct sym_match*), sym_rel_comp);
+		sym_arr = malloc((cnt+1) * sizeof(struct symbol));
+		if (!sym_arr)
+			goto sym_re_search_free;
+		for (i = 0; i < cnt; i++)
+			sym_arr[i] = sym_match_arr[i]->sym;
 		sym_arr[cnt] = NULL;
+	}
+sym_re_search_free:
+	if (sym_match_arr) {
+		for (i = 0; i < cnt; i++)
+			free(sym_match_arr[i]);
+		free(sym_match_arr);
+	}
 	regfree(&re);
 
 	return sym_arr;