diff --git a/src/callproc.c b/src/callproc.c
index abb944c3aad..52977b29f30 100644
--- a/src/callproc.c
+++ b/src/callproc.c
@@ -2237,7 +2237,7 @@ the system.  */);
   Vrcs2log_program_name = build_string ("librcs2log.so");
 #endif /* !HAVE_ANDROID || ANDROID_STUBIFY */
 
-  DEFVAR_LISP ("command-line-max-length", Vcommand_line_max_length,
+  DEFVAR_INT ("command-line-max-length", command_line_max_length,
     doc: /* Maximum length of a command and its arguments on this system.
 This is measured in characters.
 Used by `multiple-command-partition-arguments'.  Other code calls that
@@ -2246,9 +2246,9 @@ multiple times on subsequent partitions of the list of arguments.
 (In a shell script, you might use the `xargs' utility.)  */);
 #if defined _SC_ARG_MAX
   /* Divide it by 4 as a crude way to go bytes->characters.  */
-  Vcommand_line_max_length = make_fixnum (sysconf (_SC_ARG_MAX) / 4);
+  command_line_max_length = sysconf (_SC_ARG_MAX) / 4;
 #else  /* defined _SC_ARG_MAX */
-  Vcommand_line_max_length = make_fixnum (4096);
+  command_line_max_length = 4096;
 #endif	/* defined _SC_ARG_MAX */
 
   defsubr (&Scall_process);