diff --git a/src/net/net.go b/src/net/net.go
index c9099862699068..77b8f69074e39c 100644
--- a/src/net/net.go
+++ b/src/net/net.go
@@ -357,7 +357,16 @@ type PacketConn interface {
 	SetWriteDeadline(t time.Time) error
 }
 
-var listenerBacklog = maxListenerBacklog()
+var listenerBacklogCache struct {
+	sync.Once
+	val int
+}
+
+// listenerBacklog is a caching wrapper around maxListenerBacklog.
+func listenerBacklog() int {
+	listenerBacklogCache.Do(func() { listenerBacklogCache.val = maxListenerBacklog() })
+	return listenerBacklogCache.val
+}
 
 // A Listener is a generic network listener for stream-oriented protocols.
 //
diff --git a/src/net/sock_posix.go b/src/net/sock_posix.go
index 677e423ffaff2b..1cfd8a58c604bc 100644
--- a/src/net/sock_posix.go
+++ b/src/net/sock_posix.go
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ func socket(ctx context.Context, net string, family, sotype, proto int, ipv6only
 	if laddr != nil && raddr == nil {
 		switch sotype {
 		case syscall.SOCK_STREAM, syscall.SOCK_SEQPACKET:
-			if err := fd.listenStream(laddr, listenerBacklog, ctrlFn); err != nil {
+			if err := fd.listenStream(laddr, listenerBacklog(), ctrlFn); err != nil {
 				fd.Close()
 				return nil, err
 			}