diff --git a/mm/shmem.c b/mm/shmem.c
index 0905215fb016..2c012eee133d 100644
--- a/mm/shmem.c
+++ b/mm/shmem.c
@@ -2848,7 +2848,7 @@ static int shmem_create(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry, umode_t mode,
 static int shmem_link(struct dentry *old_dentry, struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry)
 {
 	struct inode *inode = d_inode(old_dentry);
-	int ret;
+	int ret = 0;
 
 	/*
 	 * No ordinary (disk based) filesystem counts links as inodes;