diff --git a/lld/ELF/OutputSections.cpp b/lld/ELF/OutputSections.cpp
index a17f713b742a89..fc0b1ecef2b8c0 100644
--- a/lld/ELF/OutputSections.cpp
+++ b/lld/ELF/OutputSections.cpp
@@ -155,6 +155,15 @@ void OutputSection::commitSection(InputSection *isec) {
     entsize = 0;
 }
 
+static MergeSyntheticSection *createMergeSynthetic(StringRef name,
+                                                   uint32_t type,
+                                                   uint64_t flags,
+                                                   uint32_t alignment) {
+  if ((flags & SHF_STRINGS) && config->optimize >= 2)
+    return make<MergeTailSection>(name, type, flags, alignment);
+  return make<MergeNoTailSection>(name, type, flags, alignment);
+}
+
 // This function scans over the InputSectionBase list sectionBases to create
 // InputSectionDescription::sections.
 //
diff --git a/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.cpp b/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.cpp
index 49b80772e56633..95d2cd5d65be87 100644
--- a/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.cpp
+++ b/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.cpp
@@ -3313,15 +3313,6 @@ void MergeNoTailSection::finalizeContents() {
   });
 }
 
-MergeSyntheticSection *elf::createMergeSynthetic(StringRef name, uint32_t type,
-                                                 uint64_t flags,
-                                                 uint32_t alignment) {
-  bool shouldTailMerge = (flags & SHF_STRINGS) && config->optimize >= 2;
-  if (shouldTailMerge)
-    return make<MergeTailSection>(name, type, flags, alignment);
-  return make<MergeNoTailSection>(name, type, flags, alignment);
-}
-
 template <class ELFT> void elf::splitSections() {
   llvm::TimeTraceScope timeScope("Split sections");
   // splitIntoPieces needs to be called on each MergeInputSection
diff --git a/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.h b/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.h
index 3d2e73071d099f..6fa99b6204db5a 100644
--- a/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.h
+++ b/lld/ELF/SyntheticSections.h
@@ -1182,8 +1182,6 @@ class PartitionIndexSection : public SyntheticSection {
 
 InputSection *createInterpSection();
 MergeInputSection *createCommentSection();
-MergeSyntheticSection *createMergeSynthetic(StringRef name, uint32_t type,
-                                            uint64_t flags, uint32_t alignment);
 template <class ELFT> void splitSections();
 
 template <typename ELFT> void writeEhdr(uint8_t *buf, Partition &part);