diff --git a/src/util/virprocess.c b/src/util/virprocess.c
index 9366f0630c..37413796b3 100644
--- a/src/util/virprocess.c
+++ b/src/util/virprocess.c
@@ -447,6 +447,7 @@ int virProcessSetAffinity(pid_t pid, virBitmapPtr map, bool quiet)
     int numcpus = 1024;
     size_t masklen;
     cpu_set_t *mask;
+    int rv = -1;
 
     VIR_DEBUG("Set process affinity on %lld", (long long)pid);
 
@@ -472,8 +473,10 @@ int virProcessSetAffinity(pid_t pid, virBitmapPtr map, bool quiet)
             CPU_SET_S(i, masklen, mask);
     }
 
-    if (sched_setaffinity(pid, masklen, mask) < 0) {
-        CPU_FREE(mask);
+    rv = sched_setaffinity(pid, masklen, mask);
+    CPU_FREE(mask);
+
+    if (rv < 0) {
         if (errno == EINVAL &&
             numcpus < (1024 << 8)) { /* 262144 cpus ought to be enough for anyone */
             numcpus = numcpus << 2;
@@ -488,7 +491,6 @@ int virProcessSetAffinity(pid_t pid, virBitmapPtr map, bool quiet)
             return -1;
         }
     }
-    CPU_FREE(mask);
 
     return 0;
 }