diff --git a/lib/netrc.c b/lib/netrc.c
index 0a4ae2cdca..444e4eebb5 100644
--- a/lib/netrc.c
+++ b/lib/netrc.c
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  *                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
  *                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
  *
- * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2021, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
+ * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2022, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
  *
  * This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
  * you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
@@ -235,6 +235,9 @@ int Curl_parsenetrc(const char *host,
   char *filealloc = NULL;
 
   if(!netrcfile) {
+#if defined(HAVE_GETPWUID_R) && defined(HAVE_GETEUID)
+    char pwbuf[1024];
+#endif
     char *home = NULL;
     char *homea = curl_getenv("HOME"); /* portable environment reader */
     if(homea) {
@@ -243,7 +246,6 @@ int Curl_parsenetrc(const char *host,
     }
     else {
       struct passwd pw, *pw_res;
-      char pwbuf[1024];
       if(!getpwuid_r(geteuid(), &pw, pwbuf, sizeof(pwbuf), &pw_res)
          && pw_res) {
         home = pw.pw_dir;