diff --git a/connect/file/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/connect/file/FileStreamSourceConnector.java b/connect/file/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/connect/file/FileStreamSourceConnector.java
index e732d55f81d7d..55090d889c99d 100644
--- a/connect/file/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/connect/file/FileStreamSourceConnector.java
+++ b/connect/file/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/connect/file/FileStreamSourceConnector.java
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public ConfigDef config() {
     @Override
     public ExactlyOnceSupport exactlyOnceSupport(Map<String, String> props) {
         AbstractConfig parsedConfig = new AbstractConfig(CONFIG_DEF, props);
-        filename = parsedConfig.getString(FILE_CONFIG);
+        String filename = parsedConfig.getString(FILE_CONFIG);
         // We can provide exactly-once guarantees if reading from a "real" file
         // (as long as the file is only appended to over the lifetime of the connector)
         // If we're reading from stdin, we can't provide exactly-once guarantees