diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
index 6bbfb4d89..37a0a4649 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2012-02-17  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
+
+	* timer.cc (getitimer): Don't create another local ret variable in
+	timer_gettime calling branch.  Simplify conditional since timer_gettime
+	always returns 0 or -1 anyway.
+
 2012-02-17  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
 
 	* ntdll.h (struct _PEB): Add EnvironmentUpdateCount member.
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/timer.cc b/winsup/cygwin/timer.cc
index f24ddbcbc..281d20cf3 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/timer.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/timer.cc
@@ -423,10 +423,8 @@ getitimer (int which, struct itimerval *ovalue)
       else
 	{
 	  struct itimerspec spec_ovalue;
-	  int ret = timer_gettime ((timer_t) &ttstart, &spec_ovalue);
-	  if (ret)
-	    ret = -1;
-	  else
+	  ret = timer_gettime ((timer_t) &ttstart, &spec_ovalue);
+	  if (!ret)
 	    {
 	      ovalue->it_interval.tv_sec = spec_ovalue.it_interval.tv_sec;
 	      ovalue->it_interval.tv_usec = spec_ovalue.it_interval.tv_nsec / 1000;