diff --git a/src/security/security_selinux.c b/src/security/security_selinux.c
index 467d1e6bfe287f92df89ca8f1ae38ba4941eef38..c09404f6f833ccb688e2f8515713b2e17d8e934c 100644
--- a/src/security/security_selinux.c
+++ b/src/security/security_selinux.c
@@ -1091,7 +1091,7 @@ virSecuritySELinuxTransactionCommit(virSecurityManagerPtr mgr ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
                                     pid_t pid)
 {
     virSecuritySELinuxContextListPtr list;
-    int ret = 0;
+    int ret = -1;
 
     list = virThreadLocalGet(&contextList);
     if (!list)