diff --git a/src/comp/middle/ty.rs b/src/comp/middle/ty.rs
index 3fcb592e109..b3d3d9a9013 100644
--- a/src/comp/middle/ty.rs
+++ b/src/comp/middle/ty.rs
@@ -178,7 +178,6 @@ export type_is_str;
 export type_owns_heap_mem;
 export type_autoderef;
 export type_param;
-export def_to_str;
 export unify;
 export variant_info;
 export walk_ty;
@@ -1300,9 +1299,6 @@ fn type_autoderef(&ctxt cx, &ty::t t) -> ty::t {
     ret t1;
 }
 
-fn def_to_str(&ast::def_id did) -> str { ret #fmt("%d:%d", did._0, did._1); }
-
-
 // Type hashing. This function is private to this module (and slow); external
 // users should use `hash_ty()` instead.
 fn hash_type_structure(&sty st) -> uint {
diff --git a/src/comp/util/ppaux.rs b/src/comp/util/ppaux.rs
index 170a8157a17..27333dd1a0e 100644
--- a/src/comp/util/ppaux.rs
+++ b/src/comp/util/ppaux.rs
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ fn ty_to_str(&ctxt cx, &t typ) -> str {
 }
 
 fn ty_to_short_str(&ctxt cx, t typ) -> str {
-    auto f = def_to_str;
+    auto f = metadata::encoder::def_to_str;
     auto ecx = @rec(ds=f, tcx=cx, abbrevs=metadata::tyencode::ac_no_abbrevs);
     auto s = metadata::tyencode::ty_str(ecx, typ);
     if (str::byte_len(s) >= 32u) { s = str::substr(s, 0u, 32u); }