diff --git a/mem.h b/mem.h
index 498df4c4..42212103 100644
--- a/mem.h
+++ b/mem.h
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
 #define malloc(X) _serval_debug_malloc(X,__WHENCE__)
 #define calloc(X,Y) _serval_debug_calloc(X,Y,__WHENCE__)
 #define free(X) _serval_debug_free(X,__WHENCE__)
-void *_serval_debug_malloc(unsigned int bytes, struct __sourceloc whence);
-void *_serval_debug_calloc(unsigned int bytes, unsigned int count, struct __sourceloc whence);
+void *_serval_debug_malloc(unsigned int bytes, struct __sourceloc whence) __attribute__ ((malloc, alloc_size(1)));
+void *_serval_debug_calloc(unsigned int bytes, unsigned int count, struct __sourceloc whence) __attribute__ ((malloc, alloc_size(1)));
 void _serval_debug_free(void *p, struct __sourceloc whence);
 #endif
 
@@ -38,20 +38,20 @@ void _serval_debug_free(void *p, struct __sourceloc whence);
  *
  * @author Andrew Bettison <andrew@servalproject.com>
  */
-void *_emalloc(struct __sourceloc, size_t bytes);
+void *_emalloc(struct __sourceloc, size_t bytes) __attribute__ ((malloc, alloc_size(2), returns_nonnull));
 
 /* Equivalent to realloc(3), but logs an error before returning NULL.
  *
  * @author Andrew Bettison <andrew@servalproject.com>
  */
-void *_erealloc(struct __sourceloc __whence, void *ptr, size_t bytes);
+void *_erealloc(struct __sourceloc __whence, void *ptr, size_t bytes) __attribute__ ((alloc_size(3), returns_nonnull));
 
 /* Equivalent to malloc(3) followed by memset(3) to zerofill, but logs an error
  * before returning NULL.
  *
  * @author Andrew Bettison <andrew@servalproject.com>
  */
-void *_emalloc_zero(struct __sourceloc, size_t bytes);
+void *_emalloc_zero(struct __sourceloc, size_t bytes) __attribute__ ((malloc, alloc_size(2), returns_nonnull));
 
 /* Equivalent to strdup(3)/strndup(3), but logs an error before returning NULL.
  *
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ void *_emalloc_zero(struct __sourceloc, size_t bytes);
  *
  * @author Andrew Bettison <andrew@servalproject.com>
  */
-char *_str_edup(struct __sourceloc, const char *str);
-char *_strn_edup(struct __sourceloc, const char *str, size_t len);
+char *_str_edup(struct __sourceloc, const char *str) __attribute__ ((malloc, returns_nonnull));
+char *_strn_edup(struct __sourceloc, const char *str, size_t len) __attribute__ ((malloc, returns_nonnull));
 
 #define emalloc(bytes)       _emalloc(__HERE__, (bytes))
 #define erealloc(ptr, bytes) _erealloc(__HERE__, (ptr), (bytes))
diff --git a/strbuf.h b/strbuf.h
index d7335a12..4c8c326f 100644
--- a/strbuf.h
+++ b/strbuf.h
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
 Serval string buffer primitives
-Copyright (C) 2012 Serval Project Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2012-2015 Serval Project Inc.
 
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
@@ -238,9 +238,39 @@ typedef const struct strbuf *const_strbuf;
  *          printf("%s\n", temp);
  *      }
  *
+ * WARNING: 'buf' must name a char[] array, not a char* pointer.  The following
+ * code is wrong:
+ *
+ *      char *p = malloc(50);
+ *      ...
+ *      strbuf b = strbuf_local_buf(p); // ERROR!
+ *
+ * In the above example, sizeof(p) will be 8 (4 on 32-bit architectures) which
+ * is NOT the size of the buffer that p points to (50), and not the desired
+ * effect: the string in strbuf b will be limited to 7 chars in length.  If the
+ * buffer pointed to by p were less than 8 in size, then appending to strbuf b
+ * would cause memory corruption and a likely SIGSEGV.
+ *
+ * If compiled with the GNU C compiler, then the above example would result in
+ * an error at compile time.
+ *
  * @author Andrew Bettison <andrew@servalproject.com>
  */
-#define strbuf_local_buf(buf) strbuf_local((char*)(buf), sizeof (buf))
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+#define strbuf_local_buf(buf) strbuf_local((char*)(buf), (sizeof(buf) == __builtin_object_size(buf, 1)) ? sizeof(buf) : __buffer_arg_is_not_array())
+#else
+#define strbuf_local_buf(buf) strbuf_local((char*)(buf), sizeof(buf))
+#endif
+
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+// If the following error occurs at compile time or this function is not found
+// at link time, it means that the argument passed to strbuf_local_buf() was
+// not an array whose size is known at compile time.  The most common cause of
+// this is passing a pointer as the argument.  The solution is to use
+// strbuf_local(b, len) instead of strbuf_local_buf(b), and supply the length
+// of the buffer explicitly.
+size_t __buffer_arg_is_not_array() __attribute__ ((error("argument to strbuf_local_buf() must be an array not a pointer")));
+#endif
 
 /** Initialise a strbuf with a caller-supplied backing buffer.  The current
  * backing buffer and its contents are forgotten, and all strbuf operations