diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 90163bdc56868151e4fd45ff77aa3bd56db45573..bb0762ee2bcb736e72db1c0bbda0604246f14c15 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1525,8 +1525,10 @@ int for_each_recent_reflog_ent(const char *ref, each_reflog_ent_fn fn, long ofs,
 		if (fstat(fileno(logfp), &statbuf) ||
 		    statbuf.st_size < ofs ||
 		    fseek(logfp, -ofs, SEEK_END) ||
-		    fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), logfp))
+		    fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), logfp)) {
+			fclose(logfp);
 			return -1;
+		}
 	}
 
 	while (fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), logfp)) {