diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 302b6fd00c..96411e6adf 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -3692,7 +3692,6 @@ Overall usermode emulation
 M: Riku Voipio <riku.voipio@iki.fi>
 S: Maintained
 F: accel/tcg/user-exec*.c
-F: include/exec/user/
 F: include/user/
 F: common-user/
 
diff --git a/bsd-user/qemu.h b/bsd-user/qemu.h
index a0c1ad7efa..a916724de9 100644
--- a/bsd-user/qemu.h
+++ b/bsd-user/qemu.h
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 extern char **environ;
 
-#include "exec/user/thunk.h"
+#include "user/thunk.h"
 #include "target_arch.h"
 #include "syscall_defs.h"
 #include "target_syscall.h"
diff --git a/include/exec/user/thunk.h b/include/user/thunk.h
similarity index 97%
rename from include/exec/user/thunk.h
rename to include/user/thunk.h
index 9f35c888f9..2a2104b568 100644
--- a/include/exec/user/thunk.h
+++ b/include/user/thunk.h
@@ -17,8 +17,12 @@
  * License along with this library; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  */
 
-#ifndef THUNK_H
-#define THUNK_H
+#ifndef USER_THUNK_H
+#define USER_THUNK_H
+
+#ifndef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
+#error Cannot include this header from system emulation
+#endif
 
 #include "cpu.h"
 #include "user/abitypes.h"
diff --git a/linux-user/thunk.c b/linux-user/thunk.c
index 071aad4b5f..3cd19e79c6 100644
--- a/linux-user/thunk.c
+++ b/linux-user/thunk.c
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 #include "qemu/log.h"
 
 #include "qemu.h"
-#include "exec/user/thunk.h"
+#include "user/thunk.h"
 
 //#define DEBUG
 
diff --git a/linux-user/user-internals.h b/linux-user/user-internals.h
index ce11d9e21c..5c7f173ceb 100644
--- a/linux-user/user-internals.h
+++ b/linux-user/user-internals.h
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 #ifndef LINUX_USER_USER_INTERNALS_H
 #define LINUX_USER_USER_INTERNALS_H
 
-#include "exec/user/thunk.h"
+#include "user/thunk.h"
 #include "exec/exec-all.h"
 #include "exec/tb-flush.h"
 #include "qemu/log.h"