diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index a0e0fac27b1486872d03662f60f2150243881065..fd90613ad6690829d6f2afe02c5130f8c9832ef6 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -496,7 +496,7 @@ class TestCache(object):
         self.parse(json.loads(f.read()))
 
 
-def _build_and_run(check_cancelled, newline_on_success, travis, cache, xml_report):
+def _build_and_run(check_cancelled, newline_on_success, travis, cache, xml_report=None):
   """Do one pass of building & running tests."""
   # build latest sequentially
   if not jobset.run(build_steps, maxjobs=1,