diff --git a/src/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php b/src/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php
index 47da156dc6..e730d7dfb0 100644
--- a/src/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php
+++ b/src/wp-admin/includes/update-core.php
@@ -813,7 +813,7 @@ function update_core($from, $to) {
 
 	// Since we know the core files have copied over, we can now copy the version file
 	if ( ! is_wp_error( $result ) ) {
-		if ( ! $r = $wp_filesystem->copy( $from . $distro . 'wp-includes/version.php', $to . 'wp-includes/version.php', true /* overwrite */ ) ) {
+		if ( ! $wp_filesystem->copy( $from . $distro . 'wp-includes/version.php', $to . 'wp-includes/version.php', true /* overwrite */ ) ) {
 			$wp_filesystem->delete( $from, true );
 			$result = new WP_Error( 'copy_failed_for_version_file', __( 'The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.' ), 'WTFwp-includes/version.php' );
 		}