diff --git a/compat/zlib-compat.h b/compat/zlib-compat.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bc20b884ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compat/zlib-compat.h
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#ifndef COMPAT_ZLIB_H
+#define COMPAT_ZLIB_H
+
+#include <zlib.h>
+
+#endif /* COMPAT_ZLIB_H */
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index c4b4b372b4..1ca2671322 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -1537,7 +1537,7 @@ int cmd_main(int, const char **);
 int common_exit(const char *file, int line, int code);
 #define exit(code) exit(common_exit(__FILE__, __LINE__, (code)))
 
-#include <zlib.h>
+#include "compat/zlib-compat.h"
 
 /*
  * This include must come after system headers, since it introduces macros that
diff --git a/reftable/block.c b/reftable/block.c
index 9858bbc7c5..bc9b079634 100644
--- a/reftable/block.c
+++ b/reftable/block.c
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ https://developers.google.com/open-source/licenses/bsd
 #include "record.h"
 #include "reftable-error.h"
 #include "system.h"
-#include <zlib.h>
+#include "compat/zlib-compat.h"
 
 int header_size(int version)
 {