diff --git a/src/common/pathTools.cpp b/src/common/pathTools.cpp
index d9a04a0dd..672234e2b 100644
--- a/src/common/pathTools.cpp
+++ b/src/common/pathTools.cpp
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ string computeAbsolutePath(const string path, const string relativePath) {
   string absolutePath;
   if (path.empty()) {
     char *path=NULL;
-    size_t size;
+    size_t size = 0;
     path = getcwd(path,size);
     absolutePath = string(path) + separator;
   } else {