diff --git a/src/basic/fileio.c b/src/basic/fileio.c
index 41fa1f2bd1..d86ad58153 100644
--- a/src/basic/fileio.c
+++ b/src/basic/fileio.c
@@ -1478,7 +1478,7 @@ int open_tmpfile_linkable(const char *target, int flags, char **ret_path) {
 }
 
 int open_serialization_fd(const char *ident) {
-        int fd = -1;
+        int fd;
 
         fd = memfd_create(ident, MFD_CLOEXEC);
         if (fd < 0) {