diff --git a/grammar/rainerscript.c b/grammar/rainerscript.c
index 7afe9b1c9..c91c139fa 100644
--- a/grammar/rainerscript.c
+++ b/grammar/rainerscript.c
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  *
  * Module begun 2011-07-01 by Rainer Gerhards
  *
- * Copyright 2011-2013 Rainer Gerhards and Adiscon GmbH.
+ * Copyright 2011-2014 Rainer Gerhards and Adiscon GmbH.
  *
  * This file is part of the rsyslog runtime library.
  *
@@ -1362,7 +1362,7 @@ doFunc_re_extract(struct cnffunc *func, struct var *ret, void* usrptr)
 	short matchnbr;
 	regmatch_t pmatch[50];
 	int bMustFree;
-	es_str_t *estr;
+	es_str_t *estr = NULL; /* init just to keep compiler happy */
 	char *str;
 	struct var r[CNFFUNC_MAX_ARGS];
 	int iLenBuf;
diff --git a/plugins/imfile/imfile.c b/plugins/imfile/imfile.c
index 9fde0580f..96487baa5 100644
--- a/plugins/imfile/imfile.c
+++ b/plugins/imfile/imfile.c
@@ -404,8 +404,8 @@ checkInstance(instanceConf_t *inst)
 	}
 	memcpy(dirn, inst->pszFileName, i); /* do not copy slash */
 	dirn[i] = '\0';
-	CHKmalloc(inst->pszFileBaseName = ustrdup(basen));
-	CHKmalloc(inst->pszDirName = ustrdup(dirn));
+	CHKmalloc(inst->pszFileBaseName = (uchar*) strdup(basen));
+	CHKmalloc(inst->pszDirName = (uchar*) strdup(dirn));
 
 	if(dirn[0] == '\0') {
 		dirn[0] = '/';
diff --git a/plugins/imjournal/imjournal.c b/plugins/imjournal/imjournal.c
index c18a2795e..f1a68aad8 100644
--- a/plugins/imjournal/imjournal.c
+++ b/plugins/imjournal/imjournal.c
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ readjournal() {
 		/* ... but we know better than to trust the specs */
 		if (equal_sign == NULL) {
 			errmsg.LogError(0, RS_RET_ERR, "SD_JOURNAL_FOREACH_DATA()"
-				"returned a malformed field (has no '='): '%s'", get);
+				"returned a malformed field (has no '='): '%s'", (char*)get);
 			continue; /* skip the entry */
 		}
 
diff --git a/runtime/nsd_gtls.c b/runtime/nsd_gtls.c
index 1110c7a48..4ec6f62b2 100644
--- a/runtime/nsd_gtls.c
+++ b/runtime/nsd_gtls.c
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  *
  * An implementation of the nsd interface for GnuTLS.
  * 
- * Copyright (C) 2007-2013 Rainer Gerhards and Adiscon GmbH.
+ * Copyright (C) 2007-2014 Rainer Gerhards and Adiscon GmbH.
  *
  * This file is part of the rsyslog runtime library.
  *
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 #include "nsd_ptcp.h"
 #include "nsdsel_gtls.h"
 #include "nsd_gtls.h"
+#include "unicode-helper.h"
 
 /* things to move to some better place/functionality - TODO */
 #define CRLFILE "crl.pem"
@@ -288,12 +289,12 @@ gtlsGetCertInfo(nsd_gtls_t *pThis, cstr_t **ppStr)
 
 		expiration_time = gnutls_x509_crt_get_expiration_time(cert);
 		activation_time = gnutls_x509_crt_get_activation_time(cert);
-		ctime_r(&activation_time, szBuf);
-		szBuf[strlen(szBuf) - 1] = '\0'; /* strip linefeed */
-		CHKiRet(rsCStrAppendStrf(pStr, (uchar*)"Certificate 1 info: "
+		ctime_r(&activation_time, (char*)szBuf);
+		szBuf[ustrlen(szBuf) - 1] = '\0'; /* strip linefeed */
+		CHKiRet(rsCStrAppendStrf(pStr, "Certificate 1 info: "
 			"certificate valid from %s ", szBuf));
-		ctime_r(&expiration_time, szBuf);
-		szBuf[strlen(szBuf) - 1] = '\0'; /* strip linefeed */
+		ctime_r(&expiration_time, (char*)szBuf);
+		szBuf[ustrlen(szBuf) - 1] = '\0'; /* strip linefeed */
 		CHKiRet(rsCStrAppendStrf(pStr, "to %s; ", szBuf));
 
 		/* Extract some of the public key algorithm's parameters */
@@ -303,20 +304,20 @@ gtlsGetCertInfo(nsd_gtls_t *pThis, cstr_t **ppStr)
 
 		/* names */
 		tmp = szBufLen;
-		if(gnutls_x509_crt_get_dn(cert, szBuf, &tmp)
+		if(gnutls_x509_crt_get_dn(cert, (char*)szBuf, &tmp)
 		    == GNUTLS_E_SHORT_MEMORY_BUFFER) {
 			szBufLen = tmp;
 			szBuf = malloc(tmp);
-			gnutls_x509_crt_get_dn(cert, szBuf, &tmp);
+			gnutls_x509_crt_get_dn(cert, (char*)szBuf, &tmp);
 		}
 		CHKiRet(rsCStrAppendStrf(pStr, "DN: %s; ", szBuf));
 
 		tmp = szBufLen;
-		if(gnutls_x509_crt_get_issuer_dn(cert, szBuf, &tmp)
+		if(gnutls_x509_crt_get_issuer_dn(cert, (char*)szBuf, &tmp)
 		    == GNUTLS_E_SHORT_MEMORY_BUFFER) {
 			szBufLen = tmp;
 			szBuf = realloc((szBuf == szBufA) ? NULL : szBuf, tmp);
-			gnutls_x509_crt_get_issuer_dn(cert, szBuf, &tmp);
+			gnutls_x509_crt_get_issuer_dn(cert, (char*)szBuf, &tmp);
 		}
 		CHKiRet(rsCStrAppendStrf(pStr, "Issuer DN: %s; ", szBuf));
 
diff --git a/runtime/stringbuf.c b/runtime/stringbuf.c
index 97bfed406..18af7afe7 100644
--- a/runtime/stringbuf.c
+++ b/runtime/stringbuf.c
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ rsRetVal cstrAppendCStr(cstr_t *pThis, cstr_t *pstrAppend)
 
 /* append a printf-style formated string
  */
-rsRetVal rsCStrAppendStrf(cstr_t *pThis, uchar *fmt, ...)
+rsRetVal rsCStrAppendStrf(cstr_t *pThis, char *fmt, ...)
 {
 	DEFiRet;
 	va_list ap;
diff --git a/runtime/stringbuf.h b/runtime/stringbuf.h
index 2df48ab4f..9de7ce3bd 100644
--- a/runtime/stringbuf.h
+++ b/runtime/stringbuf.h
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ rsRetVal rsCStrAppendStrWithLen(cstr_t *pThis, uchar* psz, size_t iStrLen);
  *
  * \param fmt pointer to the format string (see man 3 printf for details). Must not be NULL.
  */
-rsRetVal rsCStrAppendStrf(cstr_t *pThis, uchar *fmt, ...);
+rsRetVal rsCStrAppendStrf(cstr_t *pThis, char *fmt, ...) __attribute__((format(printf,2, 3)));
 
 /**
  * Append an integer to the string. No special formatting is