diff --git a/src/plugin/Manager.cc b/src/plugin/Manager.cc
index e4ee83dd83..8830cc9f65 100644
--- a/src/plugin/Manager.cc
+++ b/src/plugin/Manager.cc
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ void Manager::SearchDynamicPlugins(const std::string& dir)
 		std::stringstream s(dir);
 		std::string d;
 
-		while ( std::getline(s, d, path_list_separator) )
+		while ( std::getline(s, d, path_list_separator[0]) )
 			SearchDynamicPlugins(d);
 
 		return;
diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 5d0b9a8341..d62b05e304 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ static bool can_read(const string& path)
 	}
 
 static string zeek_path_value;
-const string zeek_path_list_separator(1, path_list_separator);
+const string zeek_path_list_separator(path_list_separator.begin(), path_list_separator.end());
 
 namespace zeek::util
 	{
@@ -576,7 +576,7 @@ void add_to_zeek_path(const string& dir)
 	// Make sure path is initialized.
 	zeek_path();
 
-	zeek_path_value += string(zeek_path_list_separator) + dir;
+	zeek_path_value += zeek_path_list_separator + dir;
 	}
 
 FILE* open_package(string& path, const string& mode)
@@ -754,7 +754,7 @@ string without_zeekpath_component(std::string_view path)
 	{
 	string rval = normalize_path(path);
 
-	const auto paths = tokenize_string(zeek_path(), path_list_separator);
+	const auto paths = tokenize_string(zeek_path(), path_list_separator[0]);
 
 	for ( size_t i = 0; i < paths.size(); ++i )
 		{
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 5acb449df7..c7fa0ceab5 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@ extern HeapLeakChecker* heap_checker;
 #endif
 
 #if defined(_MSC_VER)
-const char path_list_separator = ';';
+inline constexpr std::string_view path_list_separator = ";";
 #else
-const char path_list_separator = ':';
+inline constexpr std::string_view path_list_separator = ":";
 #endif
 
 extern "C"