diff --git a/Modules/getpath.py b/Modules/getpath.py
index 9913fcba497d30..4391a6194c7e58 100644
--- a/Modules/getpath.py
+++ b/Modules/getpath.py
@@ -238,8 +238,6 @@ def search_up(prefix, *landmarks, test=isfile):
 # CALCULATE program_name
 # ******************************************************************************
 
-program_name_was_set = bool(program_name)
-
 if not program_name:
     try:
         program_name = config.get('orig_argv', [])[0]