diff --git a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/bimport.go b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/bimport.go
index 7eb97355aa..167a36b2c0 100644
--- a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/bimport.go
+++ b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/bimport.go
@@ -1103,7 +1103,7 @@ func (p *importer) int64() int64 {
 }
 
 func (p *importer) string() string {
-	if debugFormat {
+	if p.debugFormat {
 		p.marker('s')
 	}
 	// if the string was seen before, i is its index (>= 0)