diff --git a/hw/virtio/vhost.c b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
index 54851b7614e1d7e434fc0b650228e5fdd2a7c759..a7858d34aa478930eb03a2173a5813137b7d3140 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/vhost.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
@@ -921,7 +921,7 @@ int vhost_dev_enable_notifiers(struct vhost_dev *hdev, VirtIODevice *vdev)
     BusState *qbus = BUS(qdev_get_parent_bus(DEVICE(vdev)));
     VirtioBusState *vbus = VIRTIO_BUS(qbus);
     VirtioBusClass *k = VIRTIO_BUS_GET_CLASS(vbus);
-    int i, r;
+    int i, r, e;
     if (!k->set_host_notifier) {
         fprintf(stderr, "binding does not support host notifiers\n");
         r = -ENOSYS;
@@ -939,12 +939,12 @@ int vhost_dev_enable_notifiers(struct vhost_dev *hdev, VirtIODevice *vdev)
     return 0;
 fail_vq:
     while (--i >= 0) {
-        r = k->set_host_notifier(qbus->parent, hdev->vq_index + i, false);
-        if (r < 0) {
+        e = k->set_host_notifier(qbus->parent, hdev->vq_index + i, false);
+        if (e < 0) {
             fprintf(stderr, "vhost VQ %d notifier cleanup error: %d\n", i, -r);
             fflush(stderr);
         }
-        assert (r >= 0);
+        assert (e >= 0);
     }
 fail:
     return r;