diff --git a/env/callback.c b/env/callback.c
index f0904cfdc5..4054b9ef58 100644
--- a/env/callback.c
+++ b/env/callback.c
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ void env_callback_init(struct env_entry *var_entry)
 		first_call = 0;
 	}
 
+	var_entry->callback = NULL;
+
 	/* look in the ".callbacks" var for a reference to this variable */
 	if (callback_list != NULL)
 		ret = env_attr_lookup(callback_list, var_name, callback_name);
diff --git a/env/flags.c b/env/flags.c
index 418d6cc742..b88fe7ba9c 100644
--- a/env/flags.c
+++ b/env/flags.c
@@ -457,7 +457,6 @@ static int set_flags(const char *name, const char *value, void *priv)
 
 	e.key	= name;
 	e.data	= NULL;
-	e.callback = NULL;
 	hsearch_r(e, ENV_FIND, &ep, &env_htab, 0);
 
 	/* does the env variable actually exist? */
diff --git a/include/search.h b/include/search.h
index 0469a852e0..8f87dc72ce 100644
--- a/include/search.h
+++ b/include/search.h
@@ -29,8 +29,10 @@ enum env_action {
 struct env_entry {
 	const char *key;
 	char *data;
+#ifndef CONFIG_SPL_BUILD
 	int (*callback)(const char *name, const char *value, enum env_op op,
 		int flags);
+#endif
 	int flags;
 };
 
diff --git a/lib/hashtable.c b/lib/hashtable.c
index c4e1e2bd45..f82f2463cf 100644
--- a/lib/hashtable.c
+++ b/lib/hashtable.c
@@ -450,7 +450,6 @@ static void _hdelete(const char *key, struct hsearch_data *htab,
 	debug("hdelete: DELETING key \"%s\"\n", key);
 	free((void *)ep->key);
 	free(ep->data);
-	ep->callback = NULL;
 	ep->flags = 0;
 	htab->table[idx].used = USED_DELETED;