I'd keep the asignment of zero (static int lih_host_held = 0;) because it does not hurt for good compilers and works around a bug in compilers that do not follow the standard. http://www.openafs.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/openafs/src/viced/callback.c.diff?r1=1.55.2.4&r2=1.55.2.5 Harald.