diff --git a/memcached.c b/memcached.c
index 70a9d13..f75bfa9 100644
--- a/memcached.c
+++ b/memcached.c
@@ -4438,7 +4438,7 @@ static void process_mget_command(conn *c, token_t *tokens, const size_t ntokens)
     bool item_created = false;
     bool won_token = false;
     bool ttl_set = false;
-    char *errstr;
+    char *errstr = "CLIENT_ERROR bad command line format";
 
     assert(c != NULL);