diff --git a/lib/basename.c b/lib/basename.c
index 426ed40..cf625d8 100644
--- a/lib/basename.c
+++ b/lib/basename.c
@@ -19,10 +19,7 @@
 #include <config.h>
 
 #include "dirname.h"
-
 #include <string.h>
-#include "xalloc.h"
-#include "xstrndup.h"
 
 /* Return the address of the last file name component of NAME.  If
    NAME has no relative file name components because it is a file
@@ -79,7 +76,7 @@ base_name (char const *name)
   /* If there is no last component, then name is a file system root or the
      empty string.  */
   if (! *base)
-    return xstrndup (name, base_len (name));
+    return strndup (name, base_len (name));
 
   /* Collapse a sequence of trailing slashes into one.  */
   length = base_len (base);
@@ -91,7 +88,10 @@ base_name (char const *name)
      with pure POSIX semantics, this is not an issue.  */
   if (FILE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_LEN (base))
     {
-      char *p = xmalloc (length + 3);
+      char *p = malloc (length + 3);
+      if (p == NULL)
+          return NULL;
+
       p[0] = '.';
       p[1] = '/';
       memcpy (p + 2, base, length);
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ base_name (char const *name)
     }
 
   /* Finally, copy the basename.  */
-  return xstrndup (base, length);
+  return strndup (base, length);
 }
 
 /* Return the length of the basename NAME.  Typically NAME is the
diff --git a/lib/dirname.c b/lib/dirname.c
index c27e5b5..f6b8c0c 100644
--- a/lib/dirname.c
+++ b/lib/dirname.c
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 #include "dirname.h"
 
 #include <string.h>
-#include "xalloc.h"
 
 /* Return the length of the prefix of FILE that will be used by
    dir_name.  If FILE is in the working directory, this returns zero
@@ -75,7 +74,10 @@ dir_name (char const *file)
 		     || (FILE_SYSTEM_DRIVE_PREFIX_CAN_BE_RELATIVE
 			 && length == FILE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_LEN (file)
 			 && file[2] != '\0' && ! ISSLASH (file[2])));
-  char *dir = xmalloc (length + append_dot + 1);
+  char *dir = malloc (length + append_dot + 1);
+  if (dir == NULL)
+    return NULL;
+
   memcpy (dir, file, length);
   if (append_dot)
     dir[length++] = '.';
diff --git a/lib/mkdir.c b/lib/mkdir.c
index 8073dc8..cc9cea0 100644
--- a/lib/mkdir.c
+++ b/lib/mkdir.c
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@
 #include <string.h>
 
 #include "dirname.h"
-#include "xalloc.h"
 
 /* Disable the definition of mkdir to rpl_mkdir (from the <sys/stat.h>
    substitute) in this file.  Otherwise, we'd get an endless recursion.  */
@@ -53,7 +52,12 @@ rpl_mkdir (char const *dir, mode_t mode)
 
   if (len && dir[len - 1] == '/')
     {
-      tmp_dir = xstrdup (dir);
+      tmp_dir = strdup (dir);
+      if (tmp_dir == NULL)
+        {
+          errno = ENOMEM;
+          return -1;
+        }
       strip_trailing_slashes (tmp_dir);
     }
   else
diff --git a/modules/dirname b/modules/dirname
index 7c405c2..5a8ca2d 100644
--- a/modules/dirname
+++ b/modules/dirname
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ m4/dos.m4
 Depends-on:
 double-slash-root
 stdbool
-xalloc
-xstrndup
+strndup
 
 configure.ac:
 gl_DIRNAME
diff --git a/modules/mkdir b/modules/mkdir
index ed4ee10..532e2d1 100644
--- a/modules/mkdir
+++ b/modules/mkdir
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ m4/mkdir-slash.m4
 
 Depends-on:
 sys_stat
-xalloc
+strdup
 dirname
 
 configure.ac: