diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index fdb0261..c682c3e 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -3118,7 +3118,6 @@
     int64_t total_size;
     QemuOpts *opts = NULL;
     BlockDriverState *bs_snapshot = NULL;
-    Error *local_err = NULL;
     int ret;
 
     /* if snapshot, we create a temporary backing file and open it
@@ -3165,9 +3164,8 @@
      * order to be able to return one, we have to increase
      * bs_snapshot's refcount here */
     bdrv_ref(bs_snapshot);
-    bdrv_append(bs_snapshot, bs, &local_err);
-    if (local_err) {
-        error_propagate(errp, local_err);
+    ret = bdrv_append(bs_snapshot, bs, errp);
+    if (ret < 0) {
         bs_snapshot = NULL;
         goto out;
     }