diff --git a/include/sys/refcount.h b/include/sys/refcount.h
index 3f50cddb6f51..e83ef42289f0 100644
--- a/include/sys/refcount.h
+++ b/include/sys/refcount.h
@@ -49,6 +49,39 @@ typedef struct reference {
 	uint8_t *ref_removed;
 } reference_t;
 
+/*
+ * Starting with 4.11, the linux kernel defines a refcount_t type of its
+ * own.  This macro effectively renames the refcount_t type defined within
+ * zfs so that it does not conflict, without requiring that the name of the
+ * type be changed within the ZFS code.  It also renames the functions
+ * that operate on the type as some of their names likely also conflict, and
+ * doing this for all cases makes it clearer to anyone changing the interface
+ * in the future.
+ */
+
+#define  refcount_t                   zfs_refcount_t
+
+#define  refcount_add                 zfs_refcount_add
+#define  refcount_add_many            zfs_refcount_add_many
+#define  refcount_count               zfs_refcount_count
+#define  refcount_create              zfs_refcount_create
+#define  refcount_create_tracked      zfs_refcount_create_tracked
+#define  refcount_create_untracked    zfs_refcount_create_untracked
+#define  refcount_destroy             zfs_refcount_destroy
+#define  refcount_destroy_many        zfs_refcount_destroy_many
+#define  refcount_fini                zfs_refcount_fini
+#define  refcount_held                zfs_refcount_held
+#define  refcount_init                zfs_refcount_init
+#define  refcount_is_zero             zfs_refcount_is_zero
+#define  refcount_not_held            zfs_refcount_not_held
+#define  refcount_remove              zfs_refcount_remove
+#define  refcount_remove_many         zfs_refcount_remove_many
+#define  refcount_transfer            zfs_refcount_transfer
+#define  refcount_transfer_ownership  zfs_refcount_transfer_ownership
+
+/*
+ * end linux 4.11 compat
+ */
 typedef struct refcount {
 	kmutex_t rc_mtx;
 	boolean_t rc_tracked;
diff --git a/man/man8/zdb.8 b/man/man8/zdb.8
index 02137e97faa5..10833e4c683e 100644
--- a/man/man8/zdb.8
+++ b/man/man8/zdb.8
@@ -178,7 +178,8 @@ transaction type.
 .sp .6
 .RS 4n
 Read the vdev labels from the specified device. \fBzdb -l\fR will return 0 if
-valid label was found, 1 if error occured, and 2 if no valid labels were found.
+valid configuration nvlist was found, 1 if error occured, and 2 if no valid
+labels were found.
 .P
 If the \fB-u\fR option is also specified, also display the uberblocks on this
 device.