diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index 7b77e873c0f..7388c7d63fc 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2018-07-17  Tom Tromey  <tom@tromey.com>
+
+	PR gdb/18624:
+	* coffread.c (coff_symtab_read): Use scoped_free_pendings.
+
 2018-07-11  Pedro Alves  <palves@redhat.com>
 
 	PR gdb/23377
diff --git a/gdb/coffread.c b/gdb/coffread.c
index 30583e1dda4..9e2edde19a8 100644
--- a/gdb/coffread.c
+++ b/gdb/coffread.c
@@ -803,6 +803,9 @@ coff_symtab_read (minimal_symbol_reader &reader,
   CORE_ADDR tmpaddr;
   struct minimal_symbol *msym;
 
+  buildsym_init ();
+  scoped_free_pendings free_pending;
+
   /* Work around a stdio bug in SunOS4.1.1 (this makes me nervous....
      it's hard to know I've really worked around it.  The fix should
      be harmless, anyway).  The symptom of the bug is that the first