diff --git a/lib/roken/simple_exec.c b/lib/roken/simple_exec.c
index 651da4110..b9a18616c 100644
--- a/lib/roken/simple_exec.c
+++ b/lib/roken/simple_exec.c
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ int
 simple_execlp(const char *file, ...)
 {
     va_list ap;
-    char **argv;
+    char **argv = NULL;
     int argc, i;
 
     argc = i = 0;