diff --git a/basis/unix/ffi/ffi.factor b/basis/unix/ffi/ffi.factor
index 6798bb1307..2572a518e0 100644
--- a/basis/unix/ffi/ffi.factor
+++ b/basis/unix/ffi/ffi.factor
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ CONSTANT: PROT_NONE   0
 CONSTANT: PROT_READ   1
 CONSTANT: PROT_WRITE  2
 CONSTANT: PROT_EXEC   4
-                       
+
 CONSTANT: MAP_FILE    0
 CONSTANT: MAP_SHARED  1
 CONSTANT: MAP_PRIVATE 2
@@ -29,8 +29,6 @@ CONSTANT: SEEK_END 2
 
 : MAP_FAILED ( -- alien ) -1 <alien> ; inline
 
-CONSTANT: NGROUPS_MAX 16
-
 CONSTANT: DT_UNKNOWN   0
 CONSTANT: DT_FIFO      1
 CONSTANT: DT_CHR       2
diff --git a/basis/unix/groups/groups.factor b/basis/unix/groups/groups.factor
index 70c86fab24..9abdb25e82 100644
--- a/basis/unix/groups/groups.factor
+++ b/basis/unix/groups/groups.factor
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ ERROR: no-group string ;
 
 : (user-groups) ( string -- seq )
     #! first group is -1337, legacy unix code
-    -1337 unix.ffi:NGROUPS_MAX [ 4 * <byte-array> ] keep
+    -1337 64 [ 4 * <byte-array> ] keep
     int <ref> [ [ unix.ffi:getgrouplist ] unix-system-call drop ] 2keep
     [ 4 tail-slice ] [ int deref 1 - ] bi* >groups ;