diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fea4275..682357a 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ tokio-stream = { version = "0.1.19", features = ["sync"] }
 reqwest = { version = "0.13.5", default-features = false, features = ["json"] }
 # The daemon's memory allocator; see bin/bgp/src/main.rs. With its
 # statistics, which the status page and the metrics show.
-tikv-jemallocator = { version = "0.7.0", features = ["stats", "background_threads"] }
+tikv-jemallocator = { version = "0.7.0", features = ["stats"] }
 tikv-jemalloc-ctl = { version = "0.7.0", features = ["stats"] }
 
 # `cargo build --profile profiling`: the release build, with the line tables
diff --git a/bin/bgp/Cargo.toml b/bin/bgp/Cargo.toml
index c41fef0..42c0c24 100644
--- a/bin/bgp/Cargo.toml
+++ b/bin/bgp/Cargo.toml
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ tracing-subscriber.workspace = true
 [target.'cfg(not(target_env = "msvc"))'.dependencies]
 tikv-jemallocator.workspace = true
 
+# jemalloc's background thread returns freed memory to the kernel on time
+# (see the memory figures on the status page); jemalloc has it on Linux
+# only, and warns at every start elsewhere if asked for it.
+[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
+tikv-jemallocator = { workspace = true, features = ["background_threads"] }
+
 [features]
 # jemalloc's heap profiler, for scripts/profile/full-table.sh with
 # HEAP=1: not for a production build, where it costs memory and time.