diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index ef52e31bc..517c62fe4 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -1663,14 +1663,14 @@ static void init(int argc, char **argv)
 		}
 	}
 
-	pattern_finalize_config();
-
 	err_code |= check_config_validity();
 	if (err_code & (ERR_ABORT|ERR_FATAL)) {
 		ha_alert("Fatal errors found in configuration.\n");
 		exit(1);
 	}
 
+	pattern_finalize_config();
+
 	/* recompute the amount of per-process memory depending on nbproc and
 	 * the shared SSL cache size (allowed to exist in all processes).
 	 */