diff --git a/core/sys_config.php b/core/sys_config.php
index f55b5328..dd649957 100644
--- a/core/sys_config.php
+++ b/core/sys_config.php
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ _d("VERSION", '2.8-dev');    // string   shimmie version
 _d("TIMEZONE", null);        // string   timezone
 _d("EXTRA_EXTS", "");        // string   optional extra extensions
 _d("BASE_URL", null);        // string   force a specific base URL (default is auto-detect)
-_d("MIN_PHP_VERSION", '7.3');// string   minimum supported PHP version
 _d("TRACE_FILE", null);      // string   file to log performance data into
 _d("TRACE_THRESHOLD", 0.0);  // float    log pages which take more time than this many seconds
 _d("ENABLED_MODS", "imageboard");
diff --git a/core/util.php b/core/util.php
index 66af7561..b548336a 100644
--- a/core/util.php
+++ b/core/util.php
@@ -493,16 +493,15 @@ function _sanitise_environment(): void
 {
     global $_tracer, $tracer_enabled;
 
-    if (MIN_PHP_VERSION) {
-        if (version_compare(phpversion(), MIN_PHP_VERSION, ">=") === false) {
-            print "
-Shimmie (SCore Engine) does not support versions of PHP lower than ".MIN_PHP_VERSION."
+    $min_php = "7.3";
+    if (version_compare(phpversion(), $min_php, ">=") === false) {
+        print "
+Shimmie (SCore Engine) does not support versions of PHP lower than $min_php
 (PHP reports that it is version ".phpversion().")
 If your web host is running an older version, they are dangerously out of
 date and you should plan on moving elsewhere.
 ";
-            exit;
-        }
+        exit;
     }
 
     if (file_exists("images") && !file_exists("data/images")) {
diff --git a/tests/defines.php b/tests/defines.php
index a43aec15..69f97753 100644
--- a/tests/defines.php
+++ b/tests/defines.php
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ define("NICE_URLS", false);
 define("WH_SPLITS", 1);
 define("VERSION", '2.8-dev');
 define("BASE_URL", null);
-define("MIN_PHP_VERSION", '7.3');
 define("TRACE_FILE", null);
 define("TRACE_THRESHOLD", 0.0);
 define("ENABLED_MODS", "imageboard");