diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ConfigTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ConfigTest.java
index 13d546f2b..3f4478a77 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ConfigTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ConfigTest.java
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
 import static java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS;
 import static java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit.MINUTES;
 import static java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit.SECONDS;
+import static org.eclipse.jgit.util.FileUtils.pathToString;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
@@ -855,14 +856,6 @@ public void testInclude() throws IOException, ConfigInvalidException {
 		assertEquals("bar", parsed.getString("other", null, "more"));
 	}
 
-	public static String pathToString(File file) {
-		final String path = file.getPath();
-		if (SystemReader.getInstance().isWindows()) {
-			return path.replace('\\', '/');
-		}
-		return path;
-	}
-
 	private static void assertReadLong(long exp) throws ConfigInvalidException {
 		assertReadLong(exp, String.valueOf(exp));
 	}
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/storage/file/FileBasedConfigTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/storage/file/FileBasedConfigTest.java
index 2134e1b8d..eb7bc4f7e 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/storage/file/FileBasedConfigTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/storage/file/FileBasedConfigTest.java
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
  */
 package org.eclipse.jgit.storage.file;
 
+import static org.eclipse.jgit.util.FileUtils.pathToString;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
@@ -52,7 +53,6 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.ConfigInvalidException;
-import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.ConfigTest;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FS;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FileUtils;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.util.IO;
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public void testIncludeAbsolute()
 		final File includedFile = createFile(CONTENT1.getBytes());
 		final ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
 		bos.write("[include]\npath=".getBytes());
-		bos.write(ConfigTest.pathToString(includedFile).getBytes());
+		bos.write(pathToString(includedFile).getBytes());
 
 		final File file = createFile(bos.toByteArray());
 		final FileBasedConfig config = new FileBasedConfig(file, FS.DETECTED);
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils.java
index 98c991ae2..2b6c8c94d 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils.java
@@ -869,4 +869,18 @@ public static File canonicalize(File file) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Convert a path to String, replacing separators as necessary.
+	 *
+	 * @param file
+	 * @return file's path as a String
+	 * @since 4.10
+	 */
+	public static String pathToString(File file) {
+		final String path = file.getPath();
+		if (SystemReader.getInstance().isWindows()) {
+			return path.replace('\\', '/');
+		}
+		return path;
+	}
 }