diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 1625a8f0e7..a7cc3f36ce 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ xen/.config.old
 xen/System.map
 xen/arch/arm/asm-offsets.s
 xen/arch/arm/xen.lds
+xen/arch/x86/asm-macros.i
 xen/arch/x86/asm-offsets.s
 xen/arch/x86/boot/mkelf32
 xen/arch/x86/xen.lds
diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/Makefile b/xen/arch/x86/Makefile
index 9b9b63ac63..261c598ff3 100644
--- a/xen/arch/x86/Makefile
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/Makefile
@@ -215,9 +215,22 @@ $(TARGET).efi: prelink-efi.o $(note_file) efi.lds efi/relocs-dummy.o $(BASEDIR)/
 efi/boot.init.o efi/runtime.o efi/compat.o efi/buildid.o: $(BASEDIR)/arch/x86/efi/built_in.o
 efi/boot.init.o efi/runtime.o efi/compat.o efi/buildid.o: ;
 
-asm-offsets.s: $(TARGET_SUBARCH)/asm-offsets.c
+asm-offsets.s: $(TARGET_SUBARCH)/asm-offsets.c $(BASEDIR)/include/asm-x86/asm-macros.h
 	$(CC) $(filter-out -Wa$(comma)% -flto,$(CFLAGS)) -S -o $@ $<
 
+asm-macros.i: CFLAGS += -D__ASSEMBLY__ -P
+
+$(BASEDIR)/include/asm-x86/asm-macros.h: asm-macros.i Makefile
+	echo '#if 0' >$@.new
+	echo '.if 0' >>$@.new
+	echo '#endif' >>$@.new
+	echo 'asm ( ".include \"$@\"" );' >>$@.new
+	echo '#if 0' >>$@.new
+	echo '.endif' >>$@.new
+	cat $< >>$@.new
+	echo '#endif' >>$@.new
+	$(call move-if-changed,$@.new,$@)
+
 xen.lds: xen.lds.S
 	$(CC) -P -E -Ui386 $(filter-out -Wa$(comma)%,$(AFLAGS)) -o $@ $<
 	sed -e 's/xen\.lds\.o:/xen\.lds:/g' <.xen.lds.d >.xen.lds.d.new
@@ -237,6 +250,7 @@ efi/mkreloc: efi/mkreloc.c
 .PHONY: clean
 clean::
 	rm -f asm-offsets.s *.lds boot/*.o boot/*~ boot/core boot/mkelf32
+	rm -f asm-macros.i $(BASEDIR)/include/asm-x86/asm-macros.*
 	rm -f $(BASEDIR)/.xen-syms.[0-9]* boot/.*.d
 	rm -f $(BASEDIR)/.xen.efi.[0-9]* efi/*.efi efi/mkreloc
 	rm -f boot/cmdline.S boot/reloc.S boot/*.lnk boot/*.bin
diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/asm-macros.c b/xen/arch/x86/asm-macros.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b963d56a56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/asm-macros.c
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+#include <asm/alternative-asm.h>
diff --git a/xen/include/asm-x86/alternative.h b/xen/include/asm-x86/alternative.h
index 66fe791818..d96411f0f3 100644
--- a/xen/include/asm-x86/alternative.h
+++ b/xen/include/asm-x86/alternative.h
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 #ifndef __X86_ALTERNATIVE_H__
 #define __X86_ALTERNATIVE_H__
 
+#ifdef __ASSEMBLY__
 #include <asm/alternative-asm.h>
-
-#ifndef __ASSEMBLY__
+#else
 #include <xen/stringify.h>
 #include <xen/types.h>
+#include <asm/asm-macros.h>
 
 struct __packed alt_instr {
     int32_t  orig_offset;   /* original instruction */
@@ -26,14 +27,6 @@ extern void add_nops(void *insns, unsigned int len);
 extern void apply_alternatives(struct alt_instr *start, struct alt_instr *end);
 extern void alternative_instructions(void);
 
-asm ( ".macro mknops nr_bytes\n\t"
-#ifdef HAVE_AS_NOPS_DIRECTIVE
-      ".nops \\nr_bytes, " __stringify(ASM_NOP_MAX) "\n\t"
-#else
-      ".skip \\nr_bytes, 0x90\n\t"
-#endif
-      ".endm\n\t" );
-
 #define alt_orig_len       "(.LXEN%=_orig_e - .LXEN%=_orig_s)"
 #define alt_pad_len        "(.LXEN%=_orig_p - .LXEN%=_orig_e)"
 #define alt_total_len      "(.LXEN%=_orig_p - .LXEN%=_orig_s)"