diff --git a/mm/shmem.c b/mm/shmem.c
index bf13966b009c5570246a25fbf3a5d8c62e57cdf9..3c8742655756c15ef8c54112c7213cfd315391f2 100644
--- a/mm/shmem.c
+++ b/mm/shmem.c
@@ -2895,7 +2895,7 @@ 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;