diff --git a/Source/cmCurl.cxx b/Source/cmCurl.cxx
index 7dc6b7cf1b..ab30dc6658 100644
--- a/Source/cmCurl.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmCurl.cxx
@@ -227,20 +227,6 @@ std::string cmCurlSetNETRCOption(::CURL* curl, std::string const& netrc_level,
   return e;
 }
 
-std::string cmCurlFixFileURL(std::string url)
-{
-  if (!cmHasLiteralPrefix(url, "file://")) {
-    return url;
-  }
-
-  // libcurl 7.77 and below accidentally allowed spaces in URLs in some cases.
-  // One such case was file:// URLs, which CMake has long accepted as a result.
-  // Explicitly encode spaces for a URL.
-  cmSystemTools::ReplaceString(url, " ", "%20");
-
-  return url;
-}
-
 ::CURL* cm_curl_easy_init()
 {
   ::CURL* curl = curl_easy_init();
diff --git a/Source/cmCurl.h b/Source/cmCurl.h
index 3d606715ad..321ef5a1b6 100644
--- a/Source/cmCurl.h
+++ b/Source/cmCurl.h
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ cm::optional<std::string> cmCurlPrintTLSVersion(int curl_tls_version);
 std::string cmCurlSetCAInfo(::CURL* curl, std::string const& cafile = {});
 std::string cmCurlSetNETRCOption(::CURL* curl, std::string const& netrc_level,
                                  std::string const& netrc_file);
-std::string cmCurlFixFileURL(std::string url);
 
 ::CURLcode cm_curl_global_init(long flags);
 ::CURL* cm_curl_easy_init();
diff --git a/Source/cmFileCommand.cxx b/Source/cmFileCommand.cxx
index f964367a3b..72a62b2078 100644
--- a/Source/cmFileCommand.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmFileCommand.cxx
@@ -1698,6 +1698,16 @@ std::string const TLS_VERSION_DEFAULT = "1.2";
 // Stuff for curl download/upload
 using cmFileCommandVectorOfChar = std::vector<char>;
 
+std::string CurlCompatFileURL(std::string url)
+{
+  if (cmHasLiteralPrefix(url, "file://")) {
+    // libcurl 7.77 and below accidentally allowed spaces in file:// URLs,
+    // which CMake has long accepted as a result.  Explicitly encode spaces.
+    cmSystemTools::ReplaceString(url, " ", "%20");
+  }
+  return url;
+}
+
 size_t cmWriteToFileCallback(void* ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, void* data)
 {
   int realsize = static_cast<int>(size * nmemb);
@@ -2139,7 +2149,7 @@ bool HandleDownloadCommand(std::vector<std::string> const& args,
     }
   }
 
-  url = cmCurlFixFileURL(url);
+  url = CurlCompatFileURL(url);
 
   ::CURL* curl;
   cm_curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT);
@@ -2541,7 +2551,7 @@ bool HandleUploadCommand(std::vector<std::string> const& args,
 
   unsigned long file_size = cmsys::SystemTools::FileLength(filename);
 
-  url = cmCurlFixFileURL(url);
+  url = CurlCompatFileURL(url);
 
   ::CURL* curl;
   cm_curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT);