diff --git a/lib/libc/gen/exec.c b/lib/libc/gen/exec.c
index b62ae63e6fd0..2410ce974492 100644
--- a/lib/libc/gen/exec.c
+++ b/lib/libc/gen/exec.c
@@ -190,6 +190,8 @@ execvp(name, argv)
 	int eacces, etxtbsy;
 	char *bp, *cur, *path, buf[MAXPATHLEN];
 
+	eacces = etxtbsy = 0;
+
 	/* If it's an absolute or relative path name, it's easy. */
 	if (index(name, '/')) {
 		bp = (char *)name;
@@ -203,7 +205,6 @@ execvp(name, argv)
 		path = _PATH_DEFPATH;
 	cur = path = strdup(path);
 
-	eacces = etxtbsy = 0;
 	while ( (p = strsep(&cur, ":")) ) {
 		/*
 		 * It's a SHELL path -- double, leading and trailing colons