diff --git a/hgext3rd/absorb/__init__.py b/hgext3rd/absorb/__init__.py
--- a/hgext3rd/absorb/__init__.py
+++ b/hgext3rd/absorb/__init__.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
     util,
 )
 from mercurial.i18n import _
+from mercurial.utils import stringutil
 
 testedwith = 'ships-with-fb-hgext'
 
@@ -615,7 +616,7 @@
             targetfctx = targetctx[path]
             fctxs, ctx2fctx = getfilestack(self.stack, path, seenfctxs)
             # ignore symbolic links or binary, or unchanged files
-            if any(f.islink() or util.binary(f.data())
+            if any(f.islink() or stringutil.binary(f.data())
                    for f in [targetfctx] + fctxs
                    if not isinstance(f, emptyfilecontext)):
                 continue
diff --git a/hgext3rd/lfs/wrapper.py b/hgext3rd/lfs/wrapper.py
--- a/hgext3rd/lfs/wrapper.py
+++ b/hgext3rd/lfs/wrapper.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 )
 from mercurial.i18n import _
 from mercurial.node import bin, nullid, short
+from mercurial.utils import stringutil
 
 from . import (
     blobstore,
@@ -90,7 +91,7 @@
     # by default, we expect the content to be binary. however, LFS could also
     # be used for non-binary content. add a special entry for non-binary data.
     # this will be used by filectx.isbinary().
-    if not util.binary(text):
+    if not stringutil.binary(text):
         # not hg filelog metadata (affecting commit hash), no "x-hg-" prefix
         metadata['x-is-binary'] = '0'