diff --git a/io.cpp b/io.cpp
index 4023e88c..bb5436a2 100644
--- a/io.cpp
+++ b/io.cpp
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ access_to_cflags (access_t a) {
 }
 
 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-std::unique_ptr<char []>
+std::vector<char>
 util::slurp (const boost::filesystem::path& path)  {
     fd out (path, ACCESS_READ);
 
@@ -67,12 +67,12 @@ util::slurp (const boost::filesystem::path& path)  {
 
     // Allocate a buffer, and keep reading until it's full. We provide a null
     // padding at the tail as a 'just in case' measure for string manipulation.
-    unique_ptr <char []> buffer (new char[size + 1]);
-    buffer.get()[size] = '\0';
+    std::vector<char> buffer (size + 1);
+    buffer.data ()[size] = '\0';
 
     CHECK_GE (size, 0);
     size_t remaining = (size_t)size;
-    char *cursor = buffer.get();
+    char *cursor = buffer.data ();
 
     while (remaining) {
         ssize_t consumed = ::read (out, cursor, remaining);
diff --git a/io.hpp b/io.hpp
index 3d3e03f2..ddb1c1ff 100644
--- a/io.hpp
+++ b/io.hpp
@@ -39,11 +39,13 @@ namespace util {
         ACCESS_READWRITE = ACCESS_READ | ACCESS_WRITE
     };
 
+
     /// Reads an entire file into memory. Caller frees the result. Guarantees a
     /// null trailing byte.
-    std::unique_ptr<char []>
+    std::vector<char>
     slurp [[gnu::warn_unused_result]] (const boost::filesystem::path&);
 
+
     template <typename T>
     void
     write (const boost::filesystem::path &, const T *data, size_t len);