diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 361ea58841..11c4ff1456 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(DOVECOT_VERSION, "$PACKAGE_VERSION", [Dovecot version])
 AC_DEFINE([DOVECOT_VERSION_MAJOR], regexp(AC_PACKAGE_VERSION, [^\([0-9]+\)\.\([0-9]+\)], [\1]), [Dovecot major version])
 AC_DEFINE([DOVECOT_VERSION_MINOR], regexp(AC_PACKAGE_VERSION, [^\([0-9]+\)\.\([0-9]+\)], [\2]), [Dovecot minor version])
 
-AC_CHECK_HEADERS(strings.h stdint.h unistd.h dirent.h malloc.h inttypes.h \
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS(strings.h stdint.h unistd.h dirent.h malloc.h \
   sys/uio.h sys/sysmacros.h sys/resource.h sys/select.h libgen.h \
   sys/quota.h sys/fs/ufs_quota.h ufs/ufs/quota.h jfs/quota.h \
   quota.h sys/fs/quota_common.h \
@@ -898,6 +898,8 @@ AC_DEFUN([AC_CHECKTYPE2], [
   $2]], [[$1 t;]])],[i_cv_type_$1=yes],[i_cv_type_$1=no])])
   AC_MSG_RESULT($i_cv_type_$1)
 ])
+dnl we require inttypes.h for PRIu{8,16,32,64} macros
+AC_CHECK_HEADER(inttypes.h,,AC_MSG_ERROR([inttypes.h missing but required]))
 
 dnl some systems don't have stdint.h, but still have some of the types
 dnl defined elsewhere
diff --git a/src/lib/compat.h b/src/lib/compat.h
index 6579c2feb0..78bf50d606 100644
--- a/src/lib/compat.h
+++ b/src/lib/compat.h
@@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
 #ifndef COMPAT_H
 #define COMPAT_H
 
-#if defined (HAVE_INTTYPES_H) && (defined(__osf__) || defined(_HPUX_SOURCE))
-#  include <inttypes.h>
-#endif
-
 /* well, this is obviously wrong since it assumes it's 64bit, but older
    GCCs don't define it and we really want it. */
 #ifndef LLONG_MAX
diff --git a/src/lib/lib.h b/src/lib/lib.h
index b672ad576c..528165829f 100644
--- a/src/lib/lib.h
+++ b/src/lib/lib.h
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include <limits.h> /* INT_MAX, etc. */
 #include <errno.h> /* error checking is good */
 #include <sys/types.h> /* many other includes want this */
+#include <inttypes.h> /* PRI* macros */
 
 #ifdef HAVE_STDINT_H
 #  include <stdint.h> /* C99 int types, we mostly need uintmax_t */