diff --git a/k4FWCore/scripts/k4run b/k4FWCore/scripts/k4run
index 710fd67c..7b5fb274 100755
--- a/k4FWCore/scripts/k4run
+++ b/k4FWCore/scripts/k4run
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ FILTER_GAUDI_PROPS = [ "ContextService", "Cardinality", "Context", "CounterList"
 
 seen_files = set()
 option_db = {}
+parser = None
 
 
 # There is no way of knowing if parse_known_args() or parse_args() was called