diff --git a/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/lib/IoLib.java b/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/lib/IoLib.java
index fa41b7bf..bb853ca1 100644
--- a/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/lib/IoLib.java
+++ b/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/lib/IoLib.java
@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ public class IoLib extends TwoArgFunction {
 
 	//	io.lines(filename) -> iterator
 	public Varargs _io_lines(String filename) {
-		infile = filename==null? input(): ioopenfile(FTYPE_NAMED, filename,"r");
+		File infile = filename==null? input(): ioopenfile(FTYPE_NAMED, filename,"r");
 		checkopen(infile);
 		return lines(infile);
 	}