diff --git a/src/libutil/util.cc b/src/libutil/util.cc
index 790c25768..d28d0e823 100644
--- a/src/libutil/util.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/util.cc
@@ -951,53 +951,6 @@ void _interrupted()
 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
 
-string packStrings(const Strings & strings)
-{
-    string d;
-    for (Strings::const_iterator i = strings.begin();
-         i != strings.end(); ++i)
-    {
-        unsigned int len = i->size();
-        d += len & 0xff;
-        d += (len >> 8) & 0xff;
-        d += (len >> 16) & 0xff;
-        d += (len >> 24) & 0xff;
-        d += *i;
-    }
-    return d;
-}
-
-    
-Strings unpackStrings(const string & s)
-{
-    Strings strings;
-    
-    string::const_iterator i = s.begin();
-    
-    while (i != s.end()) {
-
-        if (i + 4 > s.end())
-            throw Error(format("short db entry: `%1%'") % s);
-        
-        unsigned int len;
-        len = (unsigned char) *i++;
-        len |= ((unsigned char) *i++) << 8;
-        len |= ((unsigned char) *i++) << 16;
-        len |= ((unsigned char) *i++) << 24;
-
-        if (len == 0xffffffff) return strings; /* explicit end-of-list */
-        
-        if (i + len > s.end())
-            throw Error(format("short db entry: `%1%'") % s);
-
-        strings.push_back(string(i, i + len));
-        i += len;
-    }
-    
-    return strings;
-}
-
-
 Strings tokenizeString(const string & s, const string & separators)
 {
     Strings result;
diff --git a/src/libutil/util.hh b/src/libutil/util.hh
index f4478b449..4de33d3ef 100644
--- a/src/libutil/util.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/util.hh
@@ -276,11 +276,6 @@ void inline checkInterrupt()
 MakeError(Interrupted, BaseError)
 
 
-/* String packing / unpacking. */
-string packStrings(const Strings & strings);
-Strings unpackStrings(const string & s);
-
-
 /* String tokenizer. */
 Strings tokenizeString(const string & s, const string & separators = " \t\n\r");