diff --git a/top/top.c b/top/top.c
index 46ffdc51..4146ddb7 100644
--- a/top/top.c
+++ b/top/top.c
@@ -3615,7 +3615,11 @@ static void before (char *me) {
    struct sigaction sa;
    proc_t p;
    int i;
+#ifndef PRETEND2_5_X
    int linux_version_code = procps_linux_version();
+#else
+   int linux_version_code = LINUX_VERSION(2,5,43);
+#endif
 
    atexit(close_stdout);
 
diff --git a/top/top.h b/top/top.h
index b6e970cd..4a7c49a8 100644
--- a/top/top.h
+++ b/top/top.h
@@ -92,10 +92,6 @@
         /* For prompting & helping with top's utf-8 support, thanks to:
               Göran Uddeborg <goeran@uddeborg.se> - September, 2017 */
 
-#ifdef PRETEND2_5_X
-#define linux_version_code LINUX_VERSION(2,5,43)
-#endif
-
    // pretend as if #define _GNU_SOURCE
 char *strcasestr(const char *haystack, const char *needle);