diff --git a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-net.mk b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-net.mk
index a3b7ed666f..2fb6b68fca 100644
--- a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-net.mk
+++ b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-net.mk
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ SRC_C = getservent.c nsdispatch.c nsparser.c nslexer.c
 
 # needed for getaddrinfo()
 SRC_C += getaddrinfo.c
+SRC_C += gai_strerror.c
 
 # needed for getnameinfo()
 SRC_C += getnameinfo.c name6.c
diff --git a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc.mk b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc.mk
index e7a4d1e942..b413892523 100644
--- a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc.mk
+++ b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc.mk
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ LIBS  += base vfs
 # Back end
 #
 SRC_CC = atexit.cc dummies.cc rlimit.cc sysctl.cc \
-         issetugid.cc errno.cc gai_strerror.cc time.cc alarm.cc \
+         issetugid.cc errno.cc time.cc alarm.cc \
          malloc.cc progname.cc fd_alloc.cc file_operations.cc \
          plugin.cc plugin_registry.cc select.cc exit.cc environ.cc sleep.cc \
          pread_pwrite.cc readv_writev.cc poll.cc \
diff --git a/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/gai_strerror.cc b/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/gai_strerror.cc
deleted file mode 100644
index 0602364e4f..0000000000
--- a/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/gai_strerror.cc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * \brief  C-library back end
- * \author Christian Prochaska
- * \date   2010-05-16
- */
-
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 2010-2017 Genode Labs GmbH
- *
- * This file is part of the Genode OS framework, which is distributed
- * under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.
- */
-
-#include <base/log.h>
-
-extern "C" const char *gai_strerror(int errcode)
-{
-	static const char *result = "gai_strerror called, not yet implemented!";
-	Genode::log(__func__, ": ", result);
-	return result;
-}