diff --git a/include/linux/kmemleak.h b/include/linux/kmemleak.h
index d0a1f99e24e3eb43219e9f8b8aad400c1cc867a9..4894c6888bc6cfb95e50d43366784769faf9b281 100644
--- a/include/linux/kmemleak.h
+++ b/include/linux/kmemleak.h
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK
 
-extern void kmemleak_init(void) __ref;
+extern void kmemleak_init(void) __init;
 extern void kmemleak_alloc(const void *ptr, size_t size, int min_count,
 			   gfp_t gfp) __ref;
 extern void kmemleak_alloc_percpu(const void __percpu *ptr, size_t size,