diff --git a/src/basic/hostname-util.c b/src/basic/hostname-util.c
index 136fb3e5956..d5d1388102e 100644
--- a/src/basic/hostname-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/hostname-util.c
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "alloc-util.h"
+#include "env-file.h"
 #include "hostname-util.h"
 #include "os-util.h"
 #include "string-util.h"
@@ -191,3 +192,20 @@ bool is_localhost(const char *hostname) {
                 endswith_no_case(hostname, ".localhost.localdomain") ||
                 endswith_no_case(hostname, ".localhost.localdomain.");
 }
+
+int get_pretty_hostname(char **ret) {
+        _cleanup_free_ char *n = NULL;
+        int r;
+
+        assert(ret);
+
+        r = parse_env_file(NULL, "/etc/machine-info", "PRETTY_HOSTNAME", &n);
+        if (r < 0)
+                return r;
+
+        if (isempty(n))
+                return -ENXIO;
+
+        *ret = TAKE_PTR(n);
+        return 0;
+}
diff --git a/src/basic/hostname-util.h b/src/basic/hostname-util.h
index d435bed50ea..a00b852395d 100644
--- a/src/basic/hostname-util.h
+++ b/src/basic/hostname-util.h
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 
-#include "env-file.h"
 #include "macro.h"
 #include "strv.h"
 
@@ -61,6 +60,4 @@ static inline bool is_outbound_hostname(const char *hostname) {
         return STRCASE_IN_SET(hostname, "_outbound", "_outbound.");
 }
 
-static inline int get_pretty_hostname(char **ret) {
-        return parse_env_file(NULL, "/etc/machine-info", "PRETTY_HOSTNAME", ret);
-}
+int get_pretty_hostname(char **ret);