diff --git a/refs/files-backend.c b/refs/files-backend.c
index 50188e92f9fd90ca52d8257f3618678d632eb38a..42c0cc14f3a0c403a46104935c4878d72efb49a2 100644
--- a/refs/files-backend.c
+++ b/refs/files-backend.c
@@ -165,6 +165,9 @@ static struct ref_entry *create_dir_entry(struct files_ref_store *ref_store,
 					  const char *dirname, size_t len,
 					  int incomplete);
 static void add_entry_to_dir(struct ref_dir *dir, struct ref_entry *entry);
+static int files_log_ref_write(const char *refname, const unsigned char *old_sha1,
+			       const unsigned char *new_sha1, const char *msg,
+			       int flags, struct strbuf *err);
 
 static struct ref_dir *get_ref_dir(struct ref_entry *entry)
 {
@@ -2831,9 +2834,9 @@ static int log_ref_write_fd(int fd, const unsigned char *old_sha1,
 	return 0;
 }
 
-int files_log_ref_write(const char *refname, const unsigned char *old_sha1,
-			const unsigned char *new_sha1, const char *msg,
-			int flags, struct strbuf *err)
+static int files_log_ref_write(const char *refname, const unsigned char *old_sha1,
+			       const unsigned char *new_sha1, const char *msg,
+			       int flags, struct strbuf *err)
 {
 	int logfd, result;
 
diff --git a/refs/refs-internal.h b/refs/refs-internal.h
index fa93c9a32ec4c52b9cd6597b9c2ebb4b4501206b..f732473e1d02a34dde17714c75ccbbda6070a34a 100644
--- a/refs/refs-internal.h
+++ b/refs/refs-internal.h
@@ -228,10 +228,6 @@ struct ref_transaction {
 	enum ref_transaction_state state;
 };
 
-int files_log_ref_write(const char *refname, const unsigned char *old_sha1,
-			const unsigned char *new_sha1, const char *msg,
-			int flags, struct strbuf *err);
-
 /*
  * Check for entries in extras that are within the specified
  * directory, where dirname is a reference directory name including