diff --git a/include/exec/tswap.h b/include/exec/tswap.h
index 84060a49994..415781b2bcc 100644
--- a/include/exec/tswap.h
+++ b/include/exec/tswap.h
@@ -9,18 +9,7 @@
 #define TSWAP_H
 
 #include "qemu/bswap.h"
-
-/**
- * target_words_bigendian:
- * Returns true if the (default) endianness of the target is big endian,
- * false otherwise. Common code should normally never need to know about the
- * endianness of the target, so please do *not* use this function unless you
- * know very well what you are doing!
- */
-bool target_words_bigendian(void);
-#ifdef COMPILING_PER_TARGET
-#define target_words_bigendian()  TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN
-#endif
+#include "qemu/target_info.h"
 
 /*
  * If we're in target-specific code, we can hard-code the swapping
diff --git a/include/qemu/target_info-impl.h b/include/qemu/target_info-impl.h
index 0cec211e362..14566e4a913 100644
--- a/include/qemu/target_info-impl.h
+++ b/include/qemu/target_info-impl.h
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #define QEMU_TARGET_INFO_IMPL_H
 
 #include "qemu/target_info.h"
+#include "qapi/qapi-types-common.h"
 #include "qapi/qapi-types-machine.h"
 
 struct BinaryTargetInfo {
@@ -23,6 +24,9 @@ struct BinaryTargetInfo {
     /* related to TARGET_ARCH definition */
     SysEmuTarget system_arch;
 
+    /* related to TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN definition */
+    EndianMode endianness;
+
 };
 
 #endif
diff --git a/include/qemu/target_info.h b/include/qemu/target_info.h
index 6ca36dae8a3..e84f16d1034 100644
--- a/include/qemu/target_info.h
+++ b/include/qemu/target_info.h
@@ -21,4 +21,15 @@ const char *target_name(void);
 
 SysEmuTarget target_system_arch(void);
 
+/**
+ * target_words_bigendian:
+ * Returns true if the (default) endianness of the target is big endian,
+ * false otherwise. Note that in target-specific code, you can use
+ * TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN directly instead. On the other hand, common
+ * code should normally never need to know about the endianness of the
+ * target, so please do *not* use this function unless you know very well
+ * what you are doing!
+ */
+bool target_words_bigendian(void);
+
 #endif
diff --git a/cpu-target.c b/cpu-target.c
index 3f82d3ea444..761c2d28645 100644
--- a/cpu-target.c
+++ b/cpu-target.c
@@ -159,9 +159,3 @@ void cpu_abort(CPUState *cpu, const char *fmt, ...)
 #endif
     abort();
 }
-
-#undef target_words_bigendian
-bool target_words_bigendian(void)
-{
-    return TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN;
-}
diff --git a/hw/core/cpu-system.c b/hw/core/cpu-system.c
index 82b68b8927d..32700c49b43 100644
--- a/hw/core/cpu-system.c
+++ b/hw/core/cpu-system.c
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 #include "exec/cputlb.h"
 #include "system/memory.h"
 #include "exec/tb-flush.h"
-#include "exec/tswap.h"
+#include "qemu/target_info.h"
 #include "hw/qdev-core.h"
 #include "hw/qdev-properties.h"
 #include "hw/core/sysemu-cpu-ops.h"
diff --git a/hw/display/vga.c b/hw/display/vga.c
index b01f67c65fb..1883e03d3d8 100644
--- a/hw/display/vga.c
+++ b/hw/display/vga.c
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 #include "qemu/units.h"
 #include "system/reset.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
-#include "exec/tswap.h"
+#include "qemu/target_info.h"
 #include "hw/display/vga.h"
 #include "hw/i386/x86.h"
 #include "hw/pci/pci.h"
diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index 85110bce374..4ef56c183b2 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 #include "qemu/log.h"
 #include "qemu/main-loop.h"
 #include "qemu/module.h"
-#include "exec/tswap.h"
+#include "qemu/target_info.h"
 #include "qom/object_interfaces.h"
 #include "hw/core/cpu.h"
 #include "hw/virtio/virtio.h"
diff --git a/system/qtest.c b/system/qtest.c
index 523a0479959..6146a7bfdc0 100644
--- a/system/qtest.c
+++ b/system/qtest.c
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include "qemu/error-report.h"
 #include "qemu/module.h"
 #include "qemu/cutils.h"
+#include "qemu/target_info.h"
 #include "qom/object_interfaces.h"
 
 #define MAX_IRQ 256
diff --git a/target_info-stub.c b/target_info-stub.c
index 46a240ac66a..c1a15f5cc12 100644
--- a/target_info-stub.c
+++ b/target_info-stub.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ static const BinaryTargetInfo target_info_stub = {
     .is_stub = true,
     .name = TARGET_NAME,
     .system_arch = -1,
+    .endianness = TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN ? ENDIAN_MODE_BIG : ENDIAN_MODE_LITTLE,
 };
 
 const BinaryTargetInfo *target_info(void)
diff --git a/target_info.c b/target_info.c
index be4f19009b3..22796dda543 100644
--- a/target_info.c
+++ b/target_info.c
@@ -31,3 +31,8 @@ SysEmuTarget target_system_arch(void)
     }
     return system_arch;
 }
+
+bool target_words_bigendian(void)
+{
+    return target_info()->endianness == ENDIAN_MODE_BIG;
+}
