diff --git a/benchmarks/basic_commands.py b/benchmarks/basic_commands.py
index dc48bcc3587db496b485045ea61b154e666a7fb8_YmVuY2htYXJrcy9iYXNpY19jb21tYW5kcy5weQ==..a5e03453eae88f5f643413f893d3da99d00cdff2_YmVuY2htYXJrcy9iYXNpY19jb21tYW5kcy5weQ== 100644
--- a/benchmarks/basic_commands.py
+++ b/benchmarks/basic_commands.py
@@ -229,6 +229,9 @@
 
 class BaseExchangeMixin(object):
 
+    # this help recovering from failure during setup
+    _hgserve = None
+
     def _remote_path_cmd(self, path):
         if self.repo_type == 'local':
             return [path]