diff --git a/examples/common.h b/examples/common.h
index 204b17595..a1f3ec444 100644
--- a/examples/common.h
+++ b/examples/common.h
@@ -12,10 +12,25 @@
  * <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
  */
 
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <git2.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+
+#ifdef _WIN32
+# include <io.h>
+# include <Windows.h>
+# define open _open
+# define read _read
+# define close _close
+# define ssize_t int
+# define sleep(a) Sleep(a * 1000)
+#else
+# include <unistd.h>
+#endif
 
 #ifndef PRIuZ
 /* Define the printf format specifer to use for size_t output */
diff --git a/examples/for-each-ref.c b/examples/for-each-ref.c
index eea73d2fc..900792c12 100644
--- a/examples/for-each-ref.c
+++ b/examples/for-each-ref.c
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #include <git2.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
 #include "common.h"
 
 static int show_ref(git_reference *ref, void *data)
diff --git a/examples/general.c b/examples/general.c
index 4bd1dac23..ddc53c3e8 100644
--- a/examples/general.c
+++ b/examples/general.c
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@
  * [pg]: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Plumbing-and-Porcelain
  */
 
+#include "common.h"
+
 /**
  * ### Includes
  *
@@ -43,9 +45,7 @@
  * that you need.  It should be the only thing you need to include in order
  * to compile properly and get all the libgit2 API.
  */
-#include <git2.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <string.h>
+#include "git2.h"
 
 static void oid_parsing(git_oid *out);
 static void object_database(git_repository *repo, git_oid *oid);
diff --git a/examples/index-pack.c b/examples/index-pack.c
index 0941e09e7..2181f43f3 100644
--- a/examples/index-pack.c
+++ b/examples/index-pack.c
@@ -1,21 +1,5 @@
 #include "common.h"
 
-#include <sys/types.h>
-#include <sys/stat.h>
-#include <fcntl.h>
-#ifdef _WIN32
-# include <io.h>
-# include <Windows.h>
-
-# define open _open
-# define read _read
-# define close _close
-
-#define ssize_t int
-#else
-# include <unistd.h>
-#endif
-
 /*
  * This could be run in the main loop whilst the application waits for
  * the indexing to finish in a worker thread
diff --git a/examples/status.c b/examples/status.c
index 38e5120e8..979ab7c97 100644
--- a/examples/status.c
+++ b/examples/status.c
@@ -13,12 +13,6 @@
  */
 
 #include "common.h"
-#ifdef _WIN32
-# include <Windows.h>
-# define sleep(a) Sleep(a * 1000)
-#else
-# include <unistd.h>
-#endif
 
 /**
  * This example demonstrates the use of the libgit2 status APIs,