diff --git a/util/options.hh b/util/options.hh
index 3749b99be..dd628590e 100644
--- a/util/options.hh
+++ b/util/options.hh
@@ -586,7 +586,7 @@ struct output_options_t : option_group_t
       if (output_format)
       {
 	  output_format++; /* skip the dot */
-	  output_format = strdup (output_format);
+	  output_format = g_strdup (output_format);
       }
     }