diff -ruN stress-0.18.8/src/stress.c stress-0.18.8-new/src/stress.c
--- stress-0.18.8/src/stress.c	2005-12-08 16:36:28.000000000 +0000
+++ stress-0.18.8-new/src/stress.c	2006-03-28 09:07:29.000000000 +0000
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@
 hogvm (long long bytes, long long stride, long long hang, int keep)
 {
   long long i;
-  char *ptr;
+  char *ptr = 0;
   int do_malloc = 1;
 
   while (1)