diff --git a/lib/strequal.c b/lib/strequal.c
index e8c6674970..803064887f 100644
--- a/lib/strequal.c
+++ b/lib/strequal.c
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  *                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
  *                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
  *
- * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2008, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
+ * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2010, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
  *
  * This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
  * you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
@@ -95,16 +95,19 @@ size_t Curl_strlcat(char *dst, const char *src, size_t siz)
   char *d = dst;
   const char *s = src;
   size_t n = siz;
-  size_t dlen;
+  union {
+    ssize_t sig;
+     size_t uns;
+  } dlen;
 
   /* Find the end of dst and adjust bytes left but don't go past end */
   while(n-- != 0 && *d != '\0')
     d++;
-  dlen = d - dst;
-  n = siz - dlen;
+  dlen.sig = d - dst;
+  n = siz - dlen.uns;
 
   if(n == 0)
-    return(dlen + strlen(s));
+    return(dlen.uns + strlen(s));
   while(*s != '\0') {
     if(n != 1) {
       *d++ = *s;
@@ -114,6 +117,6 @@ size_t Curl_strlcat(char *dst, const char *src, size_t siz)
   }
   *d = '\0';
 
-  return(dlen + (s - src));     /* count does not include NUL */
+  return(dlen.uns + (s - src));     /* count does not include NUL */
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/tests/server/getpart.c b/tests/server/getpart.c
index ec4198cecd..3ecc20c994 100644
--- a/tests/server/getpart.c
+++ b/tests/server/getpart.c
@@ -238,7 +238,10 @@ int getpart(char **outbuf, size_t *outlen,
   char *buffer = NULL;
   char *ptr;
   char *end;
-  size_t length;
+  union {
+    ssize_t sig;
+     size_t uns;
+  } len;
   size_t bufsize = 0;
   size_t outalloc = 256;
   int in_wanted_part = 0;
@@ -286,12 +289,12 @@ int getpart(char **outbuf, size_t *outlen,
       ptr++;
       end = ptr;
       EAT_WORD(end);
-      if((length = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
+      if((len.sig = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
         error = GPE_NO_BUFFER_SPACE;
         break;
       }
-      memcpy(ptag, ptr, length);
-      ptag[length] = '\0';
+      memcpy(ptag, ptr, len.uns);
+      ptag[len.uns] = '\0';
 
       if((STATE_INSUB == state) && !strcmp(csub, ptag)) {
         /* end of current sub section */
@@ -333,12 +336,12 @@ int getpart(char **outbuf, size_t *outlen,
       /* get potential tag */
       end = ptr;
       EAT_WORD(end);
-      if((length = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
+      if((len.sig = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
         error = GPE_NO_BUFFER_SPACE;
         break;
       }
-      memcpy(ptag, ptr, length);
-      ptag[length] = '\0';
+      memcpy(ptag, ptr, len.uns);
+      ptag[len.uns] = '\0';
 
       /* ignore comments, doctypes and xml declarations */
       if(('!' == ptag[0]) || ('?' == ptag[0])) {
@@ -352,12 +355,12 @@ int getpart(char **outbuf, size_t *outlen,
       end = ptr;
       while(*end && ('>' != *end))
         end++;
-      if((length = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
+      if((len.sig = end - ptr) > MAX_TAG_LEN) {
         error = GPE_NO_BUFFER_SPACE;
         break;
       }
-      memcpy(patt, ptr, length);
-      patt[length] = '\0';
+      memcpy(patt, ptr, len.uns);
+      patt[len.uns] = '\0';
 
       if(STATE_OUTSIDE == state) {
         /* outermost element (<testcase>) */