diff --git a/swh/loader/cvs/cvs2gitdump/cvs2gitdump.py b/swh/loader/cvs/cvs2gitdump/cvs2gitdump.py
--- a/swh/loader/cvs/cvs2gitdump/cvs2gitdump.py
+++ b/swh/loader/cvs/cvs2gitdump/cvs2gitdump.py
@@ -590,6 +590,7 @@
                 ret.append(line)
                 continue
 
+            expkw = 0
             line0 = b''
             while m is not None:
                 logbuf = None