diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index aff02cd09d..ae532540cf 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -580,18 +580,6 @@ int for_each_remote_ref(each_ref_fn fn, void *cb_data)
 	return do_for_each_ref("refs/remotes/", fn, 13, cb_data);
 }
 
-/* NEEDSWORK: This is only used by ssh-upload and it should go; the
- * caller should do resolve_ref or read_ref like everybody else.  Or
- * maybe everybody else should use get_ref_sha1() instead of doing
- * read_ref().
- */
-int get_ref_sha1(const char *ref, unsigned char *sha1)
-{
-	if (check_ref_format(ref))
-		return -1;
-	return read_ref(mkpath("refs/%s", ref), sha1);
-}
-
 /*
  * Make sure "ref" is something reasonable to have under ".git/refs/";
  * We do not like it if:
diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index 6eb98a4caf..9dc8aa01d1 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -26,9 +26,6 @@ extern int for_each_remote_ref(each_ref_fn, void *);
 
 extern int peel_ref(const char *, unsigned char *);
 
-/** Reads the refs file specified into sha1 **/
-extern int get_ref_sha1(const char *ref, unsigned char *sha1);
-
 /** Locks a "refs/" ref returning the lock on success and NULL on failure. **/
 extern struct ref_lock *lock_ref_sha1(const char *ref, const unsigned char *old_sha1);