diff --git a/reftable/system.c b/reftable/system.c
index e25ccc0da3..1ee268b125 100644
--- a/reftable/system.c
+++ b/reftable/system.c
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#include "../git-compat-util.h"
+
 #include "system.h"
 #include "basics.h"
 #include "reftable-error.h"
diff --git a/reftable/system.h b/reftable/system.h
index bb6a7e6285..10055fbff2 100644
--- a/reftable/system.h
+++ b/reftable/system.h
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ https://developers.google.com/open-source/licenses/bsd
 
 /* This header glues the reftable library to the rest of Git */
 
-#include "git-compat-util.h"
+#include "compat/posix.h"
 #include "compat/zlib-compat.h"
 
 /*