diff --git a/src/journal/sd-journal.c b/src/journal/sd-journal.c
index 9b6c425285..80cd80f356 100644
--- a/src/journal/sd-journal.c
+++ b/src/journal/sd-journal.c
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@
 
 #define JOURNAL_FILES_RECHECK_USEC (2 * USEC_PER_SEC)
 
-#define REPLACE_VAR_MAX 256
+/* The maximum size of variable values we'll expand in catalog entries. We bind this to PATH_MAX for now, as
+ * we want to be able to show all officially valid paths at least */
+#define REPLACE_VAR_MAX PATH_MAX
 
 #define DEFAULT_DATA_THRESHOLD (64*1024)