diff --git a/src/fix_adapt.cpp b/src/fix_adapt.cpp
index ff634ba298..c09b6481f6 100644
--- a/src/fix_adapt.cpp
+++ b/src/fix_adapt.cpp
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ void FixAdapt::init()
       //   strip it for pstyle arg to pair_match() and set nsub = N
       // this should work for appended suffixes as well
 
-      char *pstyle = strdup(ad->pstyle);
+      char *pstyle = utils::strdup(ad->pstyle);
       char *cptr;
       int nsub = 0;
       if ((cptr = strchr(pstyle,':'))) {