diff --git a/src/xkbcomp/xkbscan.l b/src/xkbcomp/xkbscan.l
index 478dd04..8120681 100644
--- a/src/xkbcomp/xkbscan.l
+++ b/src/xkbcomp/xkbscan.l
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ extern int yyparse(void);
 
 <S_STR,S_KEY>\\[0-7]{1,3} {
 			/* octal escape sequence */
-			int result;
+			unsigned int result;
 
 			(void) sscanf( yytext + 1, "%o", &result );