diff --git a/tools/virsh-checkpoint.c b/tools/virsh-checkpoint.c
index 20a02b0b02..afe849dd16 100644
--- a/tools/virsh-checkpoint.c
+++ b/tools/virsh-checkpoint.c
@@ -721,7 +721,6 @@ cmdCheckpointList(vshControl *ctl,
     virDomainCheckpointPtr checkpoint = NULL;
     long long creation_longlong;
     g_autoptr(GDateTime) then = NULL;
-    g_autofree gchar *thenstr = NULL;
     bool tree = vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "tree");
     bool name = vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "name");
     bool from = vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "from");
@@ -804,6 +803,7 @@ cmdCheckpointList(vshControl *ctl,
     }
 
     for (i = 0; i < checkpointlist->nchks; i++) {
+        g_autofree gchar *thenstr = NULL;
         const char *chk_name;
 
         /* free up memory from previous iterations of the loop */