diff --git a/src/netbase.cpp b/src/netbase.cpp
--- a/src/netbase.cpp
+++ b/src/netbase.cpp
@@ -713,14 +713,17 @@
 #else
 std::string NetworkErrorString(int err) {
     char buf[256];
-    const char *s = buf;
     buf[0] = 0;
-/* Too bad there are two incompatible implementations of the
- * thread-safe strerror. */
+    /**
+     * Too bad there are two incompatible implementations of the
+     * thread-safe strerror.
+     */
+    const char *s;
 #ifdef STRERROR_R_CHAR_P
     /* GNU variant can return a pointer outside the passed buffer */
     s = strerror_r(err, buf, sizeof(buf));
 #else
+    s = buf;
     /* POSIX variant always returns message in buffer */
     if (strerror_r(err, buf, sizeof(buf))) {
         buf[0] = 0;