diff --git a/include/haproxy/defaults.h b/include/haproxy/defaults.h
index 9b521dff1..8079d059d 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/defaults.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/defaults.h
@@ -385,6 +385,11 @@
 #define MEM_USABLE_RATIO 0.97
 #endif
 
+/* if not 0, maximum allocatable memory per process in MB */
+#ifndef HAPROXY_MEMMAX
+#define HAPROXY_MEMMAX 0
+#endif
+
 /* Pools are always enabled unless explicitly disabled. When disabled, the
  * calls are directly passed to the underlying OS functions.
  */
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index 4d95ae6eb..6350a6aa7 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -1513,10 +1513,7 @@ static void init(int argc, char **argv)
 	totalconn = actconn = listeners = stopping = 0;
 	killed = 0;
 
-
-#ifdef HAPROXY_MEMMAX
 	global.rlimit_memmax_all = HAPROXY_MEMMAX;
-#endif
 
 	tzset();
 	clock_init_process_date();