diff --git a/basis/alien/data/data-docs.factor b/basis/alien/data/data-docs.factor
index 68d5022630..0536d15736 100644
--- a/basis/alien/data/data-docs.factor
+++ b/basis/alien/data/data-docs.factor
@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ $nl
 { $subsections
     malloc-object
     malloc-byte-array
-    malloc-file-contents
 }
 "The " { $vocab-link "libc" } " vocabulary defines several words which directly call C standard library memory management functions:"
 { $subsections
diff --git a/basis/alien/data/data.factor b/basis/alien/data/data.factor
index 372f3e5f98..fc18921ef1 100644
--- a/basis/alien/data/data.factor
+++ b/basis/alien/data/data.factor
@@ -56,9 +56,6 @@ M: word <c-direct-array>
 : malloc-string ( string encoding -- alien )
     string>alien malloc-byte-array ;
 
-: malloc-file-contents ( path -- alien len )
-    binary file-contents [ malloc-byte-array ] [ length ] bi ;
-
 M: memory-stream stream-read
     [
         [ index>> ] [ alien>> ] bi <displaced-alien>
@@ -81,3 +78,4 @@ M: value-type c-type-setter ( type -- quot )
     [ c-type-getter ] [ c-type-unboxer-quot ] [ heap-size ] tri
     '[ @ swap @ _ memcpy ] ;
 
+