diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index d1dbf9ee1..7b14a165a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 	* Source/win32/NSMessagePortWin32.m: Fixes for cases where requests
 	we wanted to be async actually complete synchronously.  Moves the
 	state of this code from pre-alpha to alpha/beta quality I guess.
+	* Source/preface.m: Change declaration of variables to be pointer to
+	char rather than array of char ... more usual/safe.
 
 2005-11-10  Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org>
 
diff --git a/Source/NSString.m b/Source/NSString.m
index 9508f83e5..d6b893835 100644
--- a/Source/NSString.m
+++ b/Source/NSString.m
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ pathSepMember(unichar c)
  * 2. On windows, a root consisting of a single path separator indicates
  * a drive-relative path with no drive ... so the path is relative.
  */
-unsigned rootOf(NSString *s, unsigned l)
+static unsigned rootOf(NSString *s, unsigned l)
 {
   unsigned	root = 0;
 
diff --git a/Source/preface.m b/Source/preface.m
index 628e21c67..615871923 100644
--- a/Source/preface.m
+++ b/Source/preface.m
@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@
 #include <config.h>
 #include "GNUstepBase/preface.h"
 
-const char gnustep_base_version[] = STRINGIFY (GNUSTEP_BASE_VERSION);
-const char o_gcc_version[] = STRINGIFY (GNUSTEP_BASE_GCC_VERSION);
+const char *gnustep_base_version = STRINGIFY (GNUSTEP_BASE_VERSION);
+const char *o_gcc_version = STRINGIFY (GNUSTEP_BASE_GCC_VERSION);
 
 #if NeXT_cc
-const char o_NeXT_cc_version[] = STRINGIFY (NX_CURRENT_COMPILER_RELEASE);
+const char *o_NeXT_cc_version = STRINGIFY (NX_CURRENT_COMPILER_RELEASE);
 #endif /* NeXT_cc */
diff --git a/Testing/basic.m b/Testing/basic.m
index 8e38d47f3..87d69abb5 100644
--- a/Testing/basic.m
+++ b/Testing/basic.m
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ static try(GSMimeParser *p, NSData *d)
 
 int main ()
 {
+extern char *gnustep_base_version;
   id	pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
   id	o = [NSObject new];
   id	x;
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ int main ()
   struct objc_struct_layout layout;
   unsigned i;
 
-  NSLog(@"%@", [@"//home//nicola" pathComponents]);
+  NSLog(@"GNUstep Base version: %s", gnustep_base_version);
 
   NSLog(@"Orig: %@", [NSUserDefaults userLanguages]);
   [NSUserDefaults setUserLanguages: [NSArray arrayWithObject: @"Bletch"]];