diff --git a/builtin/merge-recursive.c b/builtin/merge-recursive.c
index d8875d589240e0c78a9e241a7d2bdde1d10ab800..3d00adbfc79aa0d5e4e6b3367bc5b70f8df36857 100644
--- a/builtin/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/builtin/merge-recursive.c
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
#include "tag.h"
#include "merge-recursive.h"
+static const char builtin_merge_recursive_usage[] =
+ "git %s ... -- ...";
+
static const char *better_branch_name(const char *branch)
{
static char githead_env[8 + 40 + 1];
@@ -29,7 +32,7 @@ int cmd_merge_recursive(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
o.subtree_shift = "";
if (argc < 4)
- usagef("%s ... -- ...", argv[0]);
+ usagef(builtin_merge_recursive_usage, argv[0]);
for (i = 1; i < argc; ++i) {
const char *arg = argv[i];