diff --git a/lib/mu-maildir.c b/lib/mu-maildir.c
index 6b811d27..4aa9289b 100644
--- a/lib/mu-maildir.c
+++ b/lib/mu-maildir.c
@@ -28,16 +28,6 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 
-/* hopefully, the should get us a sane PATH_MAX */
-#include <limits.h>
-/* not all systems provide PATH_MAX in limits.h */
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#include <sys/param.h>
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#define PATH_MAX MAXPATHLEN
-#endif 	/*!PATH_MAX */
-#endif 	/*PATH_MAX */
-
 #include <string.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <glib/gprintf.h>
diff --git a/lib/mu-msg-file.c b/lib/mu-msg-file.c
index e48663cd..68d671dd 100644
--- a/lib/mu-msg-file.c
+++ b/lib/mu-msg-file.c
@@ -26,16 +26,6 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
 
-/* hopefully, the should get us a sane PATH_MAX */
-#include <limits.h>
-/* not all systems provide PATH_MAX in limits.h */
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#include <sys/param.h>
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#define PATH_MAX MAXPATHLEN
-#endif 	/*!PATH_MAX */
-#endif 	/*PATH_MAX */
-
 #include <gmime/gmime.h>
 #include "mu-util.h"
 #include "mu-str.h"
diff --git a/lib/mu-str.c b/lib/mu-str.c
index f01a4f3d..d5dd9789 100644
--- a/lib/mu-str.c
+++ b/lib/mu-str.c
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 /* -*-mode: c; tab-width: 8; indent-tabs-mode: t; c-basic-offset: 8 -*-*/
-
 /*
-** Copyright (C) 2008-2011 Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
+** Copyright (C) 2008-2012 Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
 **
 ** This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 ** it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -19,7 +18,6 @@
 **
 */
 
-
 #if HAVE_CONFIG_H
 #include "config.h"
 #endif /*HAVE_CONFIG_H*/
@@ -31,16 +29,7 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 
-/* hopefully, this should get us a sane PATH_MAX */
-#include <limits.h>
-/* not all systems provide PATH_MAX in limits.h */
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#include <sys/param.h>
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#define PATH_MAX MAXPATHLEN
-#endif /*!PATH_MAX*/
-#endif /*PATH_MAX*/
-
+#include "mu-util.h" /* PATH_MAX */
 #include "mu-str.h"
 #include "mu-msg-fields.h"
 
diff --git a/lib/mu-util.c b/lib/mu-util.c
index 421d4362..f5e398e0 100644
--- a/lib/mu-util.c
+++ b/lib/mu-util.c
@@ -29,16 +29,6 @@
 #include <wordexp.h> /* for shell-style globbing */
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
-/* hopefully, this should get us a sane PATH_MAX */
-#include <limits.h>
-/* not all systems provide PATH_MAX in limits.h */
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#include <sys/param.h>
-#ifndef PATH_MAX
-#define PATH_MAX MAXPATHLEN
-#endif /*!PATH_MAX*/
-#endif /*PATH_MAX*/
-
 #include <string.h>
 #include <locale.h> /* for setlocale() */
 
diff --git a/lib/mu-util.h b/lib/mu-util.h
index da4553dd..7a0b0c40 100644
--- a/lib/mu-util.h
+++ b/lib/mu-util.h
@@ -27,6 +27,16 @@
 #include <dirent.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h> /* for mode_t */
 
+/* hopefully, this should get us a sane PATH_MAX */
+#include <limits.h>
+/* not all systems provide PATH_MAX in limits.h */
+#ifndef PATH_MAX
+#include <sys/param.h>
+#ifndef PATH_MAX
+#define PATH_MAX MAXPATHLEN
+#endif /*!PATH_MAX*/
+#endif /*PATH_MAX*/
+
 G_BEGIN_DECLS
 
 /**