diff --git a/src/utils/smallut.cpp b/src/utils/smallut.cpp
index 33e3478c..e5876f5c 100644
--- a/src/utils/smallut.cpp
+++ b/src/utils/smallut.cpp
@@ -1161,7 +1161,7 @@ void catstrerror(string *reason, const char *what, int _errno)
     // At worse we get no message at all here.
     errbuf[0] = 0;
     // We don't use ret, it's there to silence a cc warning
-    char *ret = (char *)strerror_r(_errno, errbuf, ERRBUFSZ);
+    auto ret = strerror_r(_errno, errbuf, ERRBUFSZ);
     (void)ret;
     reason->append(errbuf);
 #endif