diff --git a/extra/unix/process/process.factor b/extra/unix/process/process.factor
index 0abefe14f1..48fac04a1c 100755
--- a/extra/unix/process/process.factor
+++ b/extra/unix/process/process.factor
@@ -1,12 +1,20 @@
-USING: kernel alien.c-types alien.strings sequences math unix
-vectors kernel namespaces continuations threads assocs vectors
-io.unix.backend io.encodings.utf8 ;
+USING: kernel alien.c-types alien.strings sequences math alien.syntax unix
+       vectors kernel namespaces continuations threads assocs vectors
+       io.unix.backend io.encodings.utf8 ;
 IN: unix.process
 
 ! Low-level Unix process launching utilities. These are used
 ! to implement io.launcher on Unix. User code should use
 ! io.launcher instead.
 
+FUNCTION: pid_t fork ( ) ;
+
+: fork-process ( -- pid ) [ fork ] unix-system-call ;
+
+FUNCTION: int execv ( char* path, char** argv ) ;
+FUNCTION: int execvp ( char* path, char** argv ) ;
+FUNCTION: int execve ( char* path, char** argv, char** envp ) ;
+
 : >argv ( seq -- alien )
     [ utf8 malloc-string ] map f suffix >c-void*-array ;
 
@@ -29,7 +37,7 @@ IN: unix.process
     >r [ first ] [ ] bi r> exec-with-env ;
 
 : with-fork ( child parent -- )
-    fork dup io-error dup zero? -roll swap curry if ; inline
+    fork-process dup zero? -roll swap curry if ; inline
 
 : wait-for-pid ( pid -- status )
     0 <int> [ 0 waitpid drop ] keep *int WEXITSTATUS ;
diff --git a/extra/unix/unix.factor b/extra/unix/unix.factor
index 002c9b38c2..40abdc873c 100755
--- a/extra/unix/unix.factor
+++ b/extra/unix/unix.factor
@@ -77,9 +77,6 @@ FUNCTION: int close ( int fd ) ;
 FUNCTION: int connect ( int s, void* name, socklen_t namelen ) ;
 FUNCTION: int dup2 ( int oldd, int newd ) ;
 ! FUNCTION: int dup ( int oldd ) ;
-FUNCTION: int execv ( char* path, char** argv ) ;
-FUNCTION: int execvp ( char* path, char** argv ) ;
-FUNCTION: int execve ( char* path, char** argv, char** envp ) ;
 : _exit ( status -- * )
     #! We throw to give this a terminating stack effect.
     "int" f "_exit" { "int" } alien-invoke "Exit failed" throw ;
@@ -87,7 +84,6 @@ FUNCTION: int fchdir ( int fd ) ;
 FUNCTION: int fchown ( int fd, uid_t owner, gid_t group ) ;
 FUNCTION: int fcntl ( int fd, int cmd, int arg ) ;
 FUNCTION: int flock ( int fd, int operation ) ;
-FUNCTION: pid_t fork ( ) ;
 FUNCTION: void freeaddrinfo ( addrinfo* ai ) ;
 FUNCTION: int futimes ( int id, timeval[2] times ) ;
 FUNCTION: char* gai_strerror ( int ecode ) ;