diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw.inc.php
index 235ce1d0dd..756325e27c 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw.inc.php
@@ -383,7 +383,6 @@ class egw extends egw_minimal
 	 */
 	function define_egw_constants()
 	{
-		define('SEP',filesystem_separator());
 		define('EGW_ACL_READ',1);
 		define('EGW_ACL_ADD',2);
 		define('EGW_ACL_EDIT',4);
diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/common_functions.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/common_functions.inc.php
index 559c27499a..7966bbff78 100755
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/common_functions.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/common_functions.inc.php
@@ -1096,6 +1096,7 @@ function get_account_id($account_id = '',$default_id = '')
  *
  * This is completely unnecessary, as you can use forward slashes in php under every OS -- RalfBecker 2005/11/09
  *
+ * @deprecated just use forward slashes supported by PHP on all OS
  * @return file system separator
  */
 function filesystem_separator()
@@ -1110,6 +1111,11 @@ function filesystem_separator()
 	}
 }
 
+/**
+ * @deprecated just use forward slashes supported by PHP on all OS
+ */
+define('SEP', filesystem_separator());
+
 /**
  * print an array or object as pre-formatted html
  *
diff --git a/setup/inc/functions.inc.php b/setup/inc/functions.inc.php
index a0b4aae5f8..ecd9559a89 100644
--- a/setup/inc/functions.inc.php
+++ b/setup/inc/functions.inc.php
@@ -52,8 +52,6 @@ if(!defined('EGW_SERVER_ROOT') && !defined('EGW_INCLUDE_ROOT'))
 
 require_once(EGW_INCLUDE_ROOT . '/phpgwapi/inc/common_functions.inc.php');
 
-define('SEP',filesystem_separator());
-
 /**
  * function to handle multilanguage support
  *