diff --git a/remotefilelog/shallowutil.py b/remotefilelog/shallowutil.py
--- a/remotefilelog/shallowutil.py
+++ b/remotefilelog/shallowutil.py
@@ -518,7 +518,11 @@
 
 def getusername(ui):
     try:
-        return util.shortuser(ui.username())
+        from mercurial.utils.stringutil import shortuser
+    except (ImportError, AttributeError):
+        from mercurial.util import shortuser
+    try:
+        return shortuser(ui.username())
     except Exception:
         return 'unknown'