diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index 7f4f165056..ee9d8b2d3e 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -13637,12 +13637,14 @@ virDomainShmemDefParseXML(virDomainXMLOption *xmlopt,
     if (def->model != VIR_DOMAIN_SHMEM_MODEL_IVSHMEM) {
         tmp = virXMLPropString(node, "role");
         if (tmp) {
-            if ((def->role = virDomainShmemRoleTypeFromString(tmp)) <= 0) {
+            int role;
+            if ((role = virDomainShmemRoleTypeFromString(tmp)) <= 0) {
                 virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR,
                                _("Unknown shmem role type '%s'"), tmp);
                 goto cleanup;
             }
 
+            def->role = role;
             VIR_FREE(tmp);
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.h b/src/conf/domain_conf.h
index 7120503d77..1b028dbcf7 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.h
@@ -1956,7 +1956,7 @@ struct _virDomainShmemDef {
     char *name;
     unsigned long long size;
     virDomainShmemModel model;
-    int role; /* enum virDomainShmemRole */
+    virDomainShmemRole role;
     struct {
         bool enabled;
         virDomainChrSourceDef chr;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 455dd72cf8..d6c5308ef0 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -9003,7 +9003,7 @@ qemuBuildShmemDevStr(virDomainDef *def,
     } else {
         virBufferAsprintf(&buf, ",memdev=shmmem-%s", shmem->info.alias);
 
-        switch ((virDomainShmemRole) shmem->role) {
+        switch (shmem->role) {
         case VIR_DOMAIN_SHMEM_ROLE_MASTER:
             virBufferAddLit(&buf, ",master=on");
             break;