diff --git a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
index 1ee417fcbfa5a09c4f337261f6c0867d9143d3de..204b3eb4e690e4d31042c979d2f7da5eb4738577 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
@@ -2740,7 +2740,7 @@ static int ftrace_process_regex(struct ftrace_hash *hash,
 {
 	char *func, *command, *next = buff;
 	struct ftrace_func_command *p;
-	int ret;
+	int ret = -EINVAL;
 
 	func = strsep(&next, ":");