diff --git a/drivers/DirHandle.h b/drivers/DirHandle.h
index 521a7ff5ca..479237df61 100644
--- a/drivers/DirHandle.h
+++ b/drivers/DirHandle.h
@@ -17,33 +17,10 @@
 #define MBED_DIRHANDLE_H
 
 #include <stdint.h>
-
-#if defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || defined(__ICCARM__)
-#   define NAME_MAX 255
-typedef int mode_t;
-
-#else
-#   include <sys/syslimits.h>
-#endif
+#include "retarget.h"
 
 #include "FileHandle.h"
 
-struct dirent {
-    char d_name[NAME_MAX+1];
-    uint8_t d_type;
-};
-
-enum {
-    DT_UNKNOWN, // The file type could not be determined.
-    DT_FIFO,    // This is a named pipe (FIFO).
-    DT_CHR,     // This is a character device.
-    DT_DIR,     // This is a directory.
-    DT_BLK,     // This is a block device.
-    DT_REG,     // This is a regular file.
-    DT_LNK,     // This is a symbolic link.
-    DT_SOCK,    // This is a UNIX domain socket.
-};
-
 namespace mbed {
 /** \addtogroup drivers */
 /** @{*/
diff --git a/drivers/FileHandle.h b/drivers/FileHandle.h
index 1900630a9d..08f498569e 100644
--- a/drivers/FileHandle.h
+++ b/drivers/FileHandle.h
@@ -19,14 +19,7 @@
 typedef int FILEHANDLE;
 
 #include <stdio.h>
-
-#if defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || defined(__ICCARM__)
-typedef int ssize_t;
-typedef long off_t;
-
-#else
-#   include <sys/types.h>
-#endif
+#include "retarget.h"
 
 namespace mbed {
 /** \addtogroup drivers */
diff --git a/features/filesystem/FileSystem.h b/features/filesystem/FileSystem.h
index a255e57b10..1f2e622663 100644
--- a/features/filesystem/FileSystem.h
+++ b/features/filesystem/FileSystem.h
@@ -38,18 +38,6 @@ enum fs_error {
     FS_ERROR_PARAMETER   = -5002,   ///< invalid parameter
 };
 
-// TODO move to retarget
-enum fs_type {
-    DT_UNKNOWN, // The file type could not be determined.
-    DT_FIFO,    // This is a named pipe (FIFO).
-    DT_CHR,     // This is a character device.
-    DT_DIR,     // This is a directory.
-    DT_BLK,     // This is a block device.
-    DT_REG,     // This is a regular file.
-    DT_LNK,     // This is a symbolic link.
-    DT_SOCK,    // This is a UNIX domain socket.
-};
-
 // Opaque pointer representing files and directories
 typedef void *fs_file_t;
 typedef void *fs_dir_t;
diff --git a/platform/retarget.h b/platform/retarget.h
index 1ba9a77830..bb23fe7870 100644
--- a/platform/retarget.h
+++ b/platform/retarget.h
@@ -19,6 +19,21 @@
 #ifndef RETARGET_H
 #define RETARGET_H
 
+/* We can get the following standard types from sys/types for gcc, but we
+ * need to define the types ourselves for the other compilers that normally
+ * target embedded systems */
+#if defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || defined(__ICCARM__)
+typedef int ssize_t;    ///< Signed size type, usually encodes negative errors
+typedef long off_t;     ///< Offset in a data stream
+typedef int mode_t;     ///< Mode for opening files
+
+#define NAME_MAX 255    ///< Maximum size of a name in a file path
+#else
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/syslimits.h>
+#endif
+
+
 #if defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || defined(__ICCARM__)
 /* The intent of this section is to unify the errno error values to match
  * the POSIX definitions for the GCC_ARM, ARMCC and IAR compilers. This is
@@ -108,4 +123,24 @@
 
 #endif /* defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || defined(__ICCARM__) */
 
+
+/* The following are dirent.h definitions are declared here to garuntee
+ * consistency where structure may be different with different toolchains */
+struct dirent {
+    char d_name[NAME_MAX+1];
+    uint8_t d_type;
+};
+
+enum {
+    DT_UNKNOWN, // The file type could not be determined.
+    DT_FIFO,    // This is a named pipe (FIFO).
+    DT_CHR,     // This is a character device.
+    DT_DIR,     // This is a directory.
+    DT_BLK,     // This is a block device.
+    DT_REG,     // This is a regular file.
+    DT_LNK,     // This is a symbolic link.
+    DT_SOCK,    // This is a UNIX domain socket.
+};
+
+
 #endif /* RETARGET_H */