diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index f419e0ac5c504e93b52c61ea496e6d72b614b9c2..f71262bc201938fa2a5475d26392cdffd6c2305c 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -1839,6 +1839,8 @@ operate(struct Configurable *config, int argc, char *argv[])
   int res = 0;
   int i;
 
+  errorbuffer[0]=0; /* prevent junk from being output */
+
 #ifdef MALLOCDEBUG
   /* this sends all memory debug messages to a logfile named memdump */
   curl_memdebug("memdump");