diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/stage.py b/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
index 4703a3aae6a..5354135e6a3 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 import errno
 import shutil
 import tempfile
-import sys
 from urlparse import urljoin
 
 import llnl.util.tty as tty