diff --git a/include/dwarfs/metadata_v2.h b/include/dwarfs/metadata_v2.h
index 0d3b6d4e..0ec7ffe0 100644
--- a/include/dwarfs/metadata_v2.h
+++ b/include/dwarfs/metadata_v2.h
@@ -136,8 +136,6 @@ class metadata_v2 {
   static std::pair<std::vector<uint8_t>, std::vector<uint8_t>>
   freeze(const thrift::metadata::metadata& data);
 
-  static void delta_compress(std::vector<uint32_t>& vec);
-
   class impl {
    public:
     virtual ~impl() = default;
diff --git a/src/dwarfs/metadata_v2.cpp b/src/dwarfs/metadata_v2.cpp
index 1fbbf999..815e91eb 100644
--- a/src/dwarfs/metadata_v2.cpp
+++ b/src/dwarfs/metadata_v2.cpp
@@ -1127,10 +1127,6 @@ metadata_v2::freeze(const thrift::metadata::metadata& data) {
   return freeze_to_buffer(data);
 }
 
-void metadata_v2::delta_compress(std::vector<uint32_t>& vec) {
-  std::adjacent_difference(vec.begin(), vec.end(), vec.begin());
-}
-
 metadata_v2::metadata_v2(logger& lgr, folly::ByteRange schema,
                          folly::ByteRange data, metadata_options const& options,
                          int inode_offset)