diff --git a/src/librustc_ast_passes/lib.rs b/src/librustc_ast_passes/lib.rs
index 5de45f4e1f3..b4d8ddccb04 100644
--- a/src/librustc_ast_passes/lib.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_ast_passes/lib.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 //! The `rustc_ast_passes` crate contains passes which validate the AST in `syntax`
 //! parsed by `rustc_parse` and then lowered, after the passes in this crate,
 //! by `rustc_ast_lowering`.
+//!
+//! The crate also contains other misc AST visitors, e.g. `node_count` and `show_span`.
 
 #![cfg_attr(bootstrap, feature(slice_patterns))]
 
 pub mod ast_validation;
 pub mod feature_gate;
+pub mod node_count;
 pub mod show_span;
diff --git a/src/libsyntax/util/node_count.rs b/src/librustc_ast_passes/node_count.rs
similarity index 98%
rename from src/libsyntax/util/node_count.rs
rename to src/librustc_ast_passes/node_count.rs
index 39f978ce98c..9fe7238fcfc 100644
--- a/src/libsyntax/util/node_count.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_ast_passes/node_count.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 // Simply gives a rought count of the number of nodes in an AST.
 
-use crate::ast::*;
-use crate::visit::*;
 use rustc_span::Span;
+use syntax::ast::*;
+use syntax::visit::*;
 
 pub struct NodeCounter {
     pub count: usize,
diff --git a/src/librustc_interface/passes.rs b/src/librustc_interface/passes.rs
index d62c7539d5f..c22c00e9154 100644
--- a/src/librustc_interface/passes.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_interface/passes.rs
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ use rustc_span::FileName;
 use rustc_traits;
 use rustc_typeck as typeck;
 use syntax::mut_visit::MutVisitor;
-use syntax::util::node_count::NodeCounter;
 use syntax::{self, ast, visit};
 
 use rustc_serialize::json;
@@ -83,7 +82,7 @@ pub fn parse<'a>(sess: &'a Session, input: &Input) -> PResult<'a, ast::Crate> {
 }
 
 fn count_nodes(krate: &ast::Crate) -> usize {
-    let mut counter = NodeCounter::new();
+    let mut counter = rustc_ast_passes::node_count::NodeCounter::new();
     visit::walk_crate(&mut counter, krate);
     counter.count
 }
diff --git a/src/libsyntax/lib.rs b/src/libsyntax/lib.rs
index b0c2aa3dbb2..6c88cd738f4 100644
--- a/src/libsyntax/lib.rs
+++ b/src/libsyntax/lib.rs
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@ pub mod util {
     pub mod lev_distance;
     pub mod literal;
     pub mod map_in_place;
-    pub mod node_count;
     pub mod parser;
 }