diff --git a/fs/nfs/flexfilelayout/flexfilelayout.c b/fs/nfs/flexfilelayout/flexfilelayout.c
index 54313322ee5b..c8e90152b61b 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/flexfilelayout/flexfilelayout.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/flexfilelayout/flexfilelayout.c
@@ -461,6 +461,7 @@ ff_layout_alloc_lseg(struct pnfs_layout_hdr *lh,
 			goto out_err_free;
 
 		/* fh */
+		rc = -EIO;
 		p = xdr_inline_decode(&stream, 4);
 		if (!p)
 			goto out_err_free;