diff --git a/Objects/fileobject.c b/Objects/fileobject.c
index 43b81ed45d7..96d3830d8b6 100644
--- a/Objects/fileobject.c
+++ b/Objects/fileobject.c
@@ -660,6 +660,9 @@ get_line(PyFileObject *f, int n)
 		n1 = getline(&buf, &size, fp);
 		Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS
 		if (n1 == -1) {
+                        if (buf){
+                                free(buf);
+                        }
 			clearerr(fp);
 			if (PyErr_CheckSignals()) {
 				return NULL;