diff --git a/src/Makefile.in b/src/Makefile.in
index 4bf7378223..40a9b01b7d 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.in
@@ -803,7 +803,7 @@ testfiles:
 ###############################################################################
 
 UNIT_TEST_OBJS = \
-	tests/unit-tests.o tests/misc.o tests/common.o tests/memory.o tests/sha2.o unicode.o
+	tests/unit-tests.o tests/misc.o tests/common.o tests/memory.o tests/sha2.o tests/unicode.o
 
 UNIT_TEST_INCLUDED_PIECES = \
 	tests/test_valid_utf8.c
@@ -823,6 +823,9 @@ tests/common.o:	common.c arch.h common.h memory.h os.h os-autoconf.h autoconfig.
 tests/memory.o:	memory.c arch.h misc.h jumbo.h autoconfig.h memory.h common.h johnswap.h os.h os-autoconf.h
 	$(CC) -o tests/memory.o $(CFLAGS) -D_JOHN_MISC_NO_LOG  memory.c
 
+tests/unicode.o:	unicode.o # just to have all the same deps
+	$(CC) -o tests/unicode.o $(CFLAGS) -DUNICODE_NO_OPTIONS -DNOT_JOHN  unicode.c
+
 # keep the 'easy name' build target of unit-tests   The 'real' target is ../run/unit-tests[.exe]
 unit-tests:	../run/unit-tests@EXE_EXT@
 
diff --git a/src/Makefile.legacy b/src/Makefile.legacy
index 11e3ffccb5..9eddff3349 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.legacy
+++ b/src/Makefile.legacy
@@ -337,8 +337,8 @@ default:
 	@echo "beos-x86-any             BeOS, x86"
 	@echo "generic                  Any other Unix-like system with gcc"
 
-unit-tests: unicode.o
-	$(CC) -o ../run/unit-tests -Wall -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -DFORCE_GENERIC_SHA2 -D_JOHN_MISC_NO_LOG tests/unit-tests.c misc.c common.c memory.c sha2.c unicode.o -lcrypto
+unit-tests:
+	$(CC) -o ../run/unit-tests -Wall -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -DFORCE_GENERIC_SHA2 -D_JOHN_MISC_NO_LOG -DUNICODE_NO_OPTIONS -DNOT_JOHN tests/unit-tests.c misc.c common.c memory.c sha2.c unicode.c
 	../run/unit-tests
 
 linux-x86-64-avx512:
diff --git a/src/tests/unit-tests.c b/src/tests/unit-tests.c
index 9494b34295..fa145aa6cb 100644
--- a/src/tests/unit-tests.c
+++ b/src/tests/unit-tests.c
@@ -45,8 +45,6 @@
 
 #include "../sha2.h"
 
-struct options_main options; /* fake symbol to compile with unicode.o */
-
 char *_fgetl_pad = NULL;
 #ifdef __sun
 /* Solaris fprintf() seems to get confused at around 16384 */