diff --git a/usr.bin/mklocale/yacc.y b/usr.bin/mklocale/yacc.y
index c5304c9ef032..01f9f493a663 100644
--- a/usr.bin/mklocale/yacc.y
+++ b/usr.bin/mklocale/yacc.y
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ entry	:	ENCODING STRING
 		      strcmp($2, "BIG5") &&
 		      strcmp($2, "MSKanji"))
 			warnx("ENCODING %s is not supported by libc", $2);
-		strncpy(new_locale.encoding, $2,
+		strlcpy(new_locale.encoding, $2,
 		    sizeof(new_locale.encoding)); }
 	|	VARIABLE
 		{ new_locale.variable_len = strlen($1) + 1;