diff --git a/src/pacman/pacman.c b/src/pacman/pacman.c
index 05ae8d13..3859c8d3 100644
--- a/src/pacman/pacman.c
+++ b/src/pacman/pacman.c
@@ -57,15 +57,15 @@ static alpm_list_t *pm_targets;
  * @param op     the operation code requested
  * @param myname basename(argv[0])
  */
-static void usage(int op, char *myname)
+static void usage(int op, const char * const myname)
 {
 	/* prefetch some strings for usage below, which moves a lot of calls
 	 * out of gettext. */
-	char * const str_opt = _("options");
-	char * const str_file = _("file");
-	char * const str_pkg = _("package");
-	char * const str_usg = _("usage");
-	char * const str_opr = _("operation");
+	char const * const str_opt = _("options");
+	char const * const str_file = _("file");
+	char const * const str_pkg = _("package");
+	char const * const str_usg = _("usage");
+	char const * const str_opr = _("operation");
 
 	if(op == PM_OP_MAIN) {
 		printf("%s:  %s <%s> [...]\n", str_usg, myname, str_opr);
@@ -233,6 +233,28 @@ static void cleanup(int signum)
 	exit(signum);
 }
 
+/** Parse the basename of a program from a path.
+* Grabbed from the uClibc source.
+* @param path path to parse basename from
+*
+* @return everything following the final '/'
+*/
+static char *mbasename(const char *path)
+{
+	const char *s;
+	const char *p;
+
+	p = s = path;
+
+	while (*s) {
+		if (*s++ == '/') {
+			p = s;
+		}
+	}
+
+	return (char *)p;
+}
+
 /** Parse command-line arguments for each operation.
  * @param argc argc
  * @param argv argv
@@ -432,7 +454,7 @@ static int parseargs(int argc, char *argv[])
 	}
 
 	if(config->help) {
-		usage(config->op, basename(argv[0]));
+		usage(config->op, mbasename(argv[0]));
 		return(2);
 	}
 	if(config->version) {
diff --git a/src/util/testdb.c b/src/util/testdb.c
index a06456a4..421a553c 100644
--- a/src/util/testdb.c
+++ b/src/util/testdb.c
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 #include <alpm.h>
 #include <alpm_list.h>
 
+#define BASENAME "testdb"
+
 int str_cmp(const void *s1, const void *s2)
 {
   return(strcmp(s1, s2));
@@ -145,7 +147,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
   } else if(argc == 3 && strcmp(argv[1], "-b") == 0) {
     dbpath = argv[2];
   } else {
-    fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s -b <pacman db>\n", basename(argv[0]));
+    fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s -b <pacman db>\n", BASENAME);
     return(1);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/util/testpkg.c b/src/util/testpkg.c
index 7d844e85..d2679e58 100644
--- a/src/util/testpkg.c
+++ b/src/util/testpkg.c
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
 
 #include <alpm.h>
 
+#define BASENAME "testpkg"
+
 static void output_cb(pmloglevel_t level, char *fmt, va_list args)
 {
 	if(strlen(fmt)) {
@@ -45,7 +47,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     pmpkg_t *pkg = NULL;
 
     if(argc != 2) {
-		fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s <package file>\n", basename(argv[0]));
+		fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s <package file>\n", BASENAME);
 		return(1);
 	}