diff --git a/tcc.c b/tcc.c
index 03fac0b3..467ef880 100644
--- a/tcc.c
+++ b/tcc.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ static int do_bench = 0;
 static int gen_deps;
 static const char *deps_outfile;
 static const char *m_option;
+static char *linker_arg;
 
 #define TCC_OPTION_HAS_ARG 0x0001
 #define TCC_OPTION_NOSEP   0x0002 /* cannot have space before option and arg */
@@ -280,7 +281,6 @@ static int parse_args(TCCState *s, int argc, char **argv)
     const char *optarg, *p1, *r1;
     char *r;
     int was_pthread;
-    char *linker_arg = NULL;
     unsigned long linker_argsize = 0;
 
     was_pthread = 0; /* is set if commandline contains -pthread key */
@@ -478,7 +478,6 @@ static int parse_args(TCCState *s, int argc, char **argv)
     }
     if ((r = (char *) tcc_set_linker(s, (char *)linker_arg, TRUE)))
         tcc_error("unsupported linker option '%s'", r);
-    tcc_free(linker_arg);
     /* fixme: these options could be different on your platform */
     if (was_pthread && output_type != TCC_OUTPUT_OBJ) {
         dynarray_add((void ***)&files, &nb_files, "-lpthread");
@@ -611,6 +610,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     }
 
     tcc_delete(s);
+    tcc_free(linker_arg);
     tcc_free(outfile);
 
 #ifdef MEM_DEBUG