diff --git a/scripts/qapi.py b/scripts/qapi.py
index e88c047c2e1f43ce399ed5db4abb8ba5a79a2798..6c4d554165632b8ef1ae3712102e0b058b56db0e 100644
--- a/scripts/qapi.py
+++ b/scripts/qapi.py
@@ -106,7 +106,6 @@ class QAPIDoc(object):
             self.name = name
             # the list of lines for this section
             self.content = []
-            self.optional = False
 
         def append(self, line):
             self.content.append(line)