diff --git a/lib/functions b/lib/functions
index ced6e97..fac4c46 100644
--- a/lib/functions
+++ b/lib/functions
@@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ _daemon_set_ulimits() {
 
 # A function to start a program (now it's useful on read-only filesystem too)
 daemon() {
-	local errors="" prog="" end="" waitname="" waittime=""
+	local errors="" prog="" end="" waitname="" waittime=0
 	local exit_code=0
 	local nice=$SERVICE_RUN_NICE_LEVEL
 	local fork user closefds redirfds pidfile makepid chdir=/