diff --git a/dwarves.c b/dwarves.c
index 97e42f1..90f5a31 100644
--- a/dwarves.c
+++ b/dwarves.c
@@ -417,6 +417,11 @@ static void cu__find_class_holes(struct cu *cu)
 		class__find_holes(pos);
 }
 
+bool cus__empty(const struct cus *cus)
+{
+	return list_empty(&cus->cus);
+}
+
 void cus__add(struct cus *cus, struct cu *cu)
 {
 	cus->nr_entries++;
diff --git a/dwarves.h b/dwarves.h
index c177206..f0125be 100644
--- a/dwarves.h
+++ b/dwarves.h
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ struct function *cus__find_function_at_addr(const struct cus *cus,
 void cus__for_each_cu(struct cus *cus, int (*iterator)(struct cu *cu, void *cookie),
 		      void *cookie,
 		      struct cu *(*filter)(struct cu *cu));
+bool cus__empty(const struct cus *cus);
 
 struct ptr_table {
 	void	 **entries;
diff --git a/dwarves_fprintf.c b/dwarves_fprintf.c
index 08b34ba..9e76f51 100644
--- a/dwarves_fprintf.c
+++ b/dwarves_fprintf.c
@@ -1949,7 +1949,7 @@ size_t tag__fprintf(struct tag *tag, const struct cu *cu,
 void cus__print_error_msg(const char *progname, const struct cus *cus,
 			  const char *filename, const int err)
 {
-	if (err == -EINVAL || (cus != NULL && list_empty(&cus->cus)))
+	if (err == -EINVAL || (cus != NULL && cus__empty(cus)))
 		fprintf(stderr, "%s: couldn't load debugging info from %s\n",
 		       progname, filename);
 	else