diff --git a/src/util/virpci.c b/src/util/virpci.c
index 2c1b75855c51e41c85232f2c59ada3c950601d72..110d9741c12c30c1b1b479d76f4e848b9284277b 100644
--- a/src/util/virpci.c
+++ b/src/util/virpci.c
@@ -2857,7 +2857,7 @@ virPCIDeviceAddressGetSysfsFile(virPCIDeviceAddressPtr addr,
  * Returns the network device name of a pci device
  */
 int
-virPCIGetNetName(char *device_link_sysfs_path, char **netname)
+virPCIGetNetName(const char *device_link_sysfs_path, char **netname)
 {
     char *pcidev_sysfs_net_path = NULL;
     int ret = -1;
@@ -2991,7 +2991,7 @@ virPCIDeviceAddressGetSysfsFile(virPCIDeviceAddressPtr dev ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
 }
 
 int
-virPCIGetNetName(char *device_link_sysfs_path ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
+virPCIGetNetName(const char *device_link_sysfs_path ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
                  char **netname ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED)
 {
     virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, "%s", _(unsupported));
diff --git a/src/util/virpci.h b/src/util/virpci.h
index 570684e750284bc8a85053e6b76f3c73a1fc11d0..82d4ddc61bca867f9040b2bde1c63ecbe32aab11 100644
--- a/src/util/virpci.h
+++ b/src/util/virpci.h
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ int virPCIGetVirtualFunctionIndex(const char *pf_sysfs_device_link,
 int virPCIDeviceAddressGetSysfsFile(virPCIDeviceAddressPtr addr,
                                     char **pci_sysfs_device_link);
 
-int virPCIGetNetName(char *device_link_sysfs_path, char **netname);
+int virPCIGetNetName(const char *device_link_sysfs_path, char **netname);
 
 int virPCIGetSysfsFile(char *virPCIDeviceName,
                              char **pci_sysfs_device_link)