diff --git a/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c b/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c
index df3306274630..cc0c1f2bba45 100644
--- a/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c
+++ b/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c
@@ -1137,10 +1137,12 @@ struct btree *__bch_btree_node_alloc(struct cache_set *c, struct btree_op *op,
 				     struct btree *parent)
 {
 	BKEY_PADDED(key) k;
-	struct btree *b = ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN);
+	struct btree *b;
 
 	mutex_lock(&c->bucket_lock);
 retry:
+	/* return ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN) when it fails */
+	b = ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN);
 	if (__bch_bucket_alloc_set(c, RESERVE_BTREE, &k.key, wait))
 		goto err;