diff --git a/src/bin/eet/eet_main.c b/src/bin/eet/eet_main.c
index c2f0338756..05ad423916 100644
--- a/src/bin/eet/eet_main.c
+++ b/src/bin/eet/eet_main.c
@@ -328,6 +328,13 @@ do_eet_encode(const char *file,
 
    fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END);
    textlen = ftell(f);
+   if (textlen < 0)
+     {
+        ERR("cannot obtain current file position %s", out);
+        fclose(f);
+        exit(-1);
+     }
+
    rewind(f);
    text = malloc(textlen);
    if (!text)