diff --git a/fs/netfs/iterator.c b/fs/netfs/iterator.c
index 154a14bb2d7f..6903028b7162 100644
--- a/fs/netfs/iterator.c
+++ b/fs/netfs/iterator.c
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ ssize_t netfs_extract_user_iter(struct iov_iter *orig, size_t orig_len,
 	unsigned int max_pages;
 	unsigned int npages = 0;
 	unsigned int i;
-	ssize_t ret;
+	ssize_t ret = 0;
 	size_t count = orig_len, offset, len;
 	size_t bv_size, pg_size;