3 files changed, 6 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/doc/string/new.rdoc b/doc/string/new.rdoc
index d955e61c87..1d44291f76 100644
--- a/doc/string/new.rdoc
+++ b/doc/string/new.rdoc
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ which may in turn affect performance:
   String.new(capacity: 1)
   String.new('foo', capacity: 4096)
 
+Note that Ruby strings are null-terminated internally, so the internal
+buffer size will be one or more bytes larger than the requested capacity
+depending on the encoding.
+
 The +string+, +encoding+, and +capacity+ arguments may all be used together:
 
   String.new('hello', encoding: 'UTF-8', capacity: 25)
diff --git a/string.c b/string.c
index 3d4650ff05..635be6988d 100644
--- a/string.c
+++ b/string.c
@@ -1970,12 +1970,7 @@ rb_str_s_new(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE klass)
         }
     }
 
-    long fake_len = capa - termlen;
-    if (fake_len < 0) {
-        fake_len = 0;
-    }
-
-    VALUE str = str_new0(klass, NULL, fake_len, termlen);
+    VALUE str = str_new0(klass, NULL, capa, termlen);
     STR_SET_LEN(str, 0);
     TERM_FILL(RSTRING_PTR(str), termlen);
 
diff --git a/test/-ext-/string/test_capacity.rb b/test/-ext-/string/test_capacity.rb
index 2c6c51fdda..bcca64d85a 100644
--- a/test/-ext-/string/test_capacity.rb
+++ b/test/-ext-/string/test_capacity.rb
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class Test_StringCapacity < Test::Unit::TestCase
   def test_s_new_capacity
     assert_equal("", String.new(capacity: 1000))
     assert_equal(String, String.new(capacity: 1000).class)
-    assert_equal(10_000 - 1, capa(String.new(capacity: 10_000))) # Real capa doesn't account for termlen
+    assert_equal(10_000, capa(String.new(capacity: 10_000)))
 
     assert_equal("", String.new(capacity: -1000))
     assert_equal(capa(String.new(capacity: -10000)), capa(String.new(capacity: -1000)))