Wadda ya mean it's not defined? Impossible Error?

[David Gilbert]

I'm getting what appears to be an impossible error.  Here's a code
snippet:

def parseLogs(paths, custs):

    ipfRecord = re.compile("^([0-9]+)[  ]+([0-9]+)[
]+([0-9a-z]+)([+-])")

    last = {}
    for i in range(len(paths)):             # Create start times
        ... and so on.

Here's the error snippet:

  File "../devel/ditty/bandsaw2.py", line 37, in parseLogs
    for i in range(len(paths)):             # Create start times
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'paths' referenced before assignment

Just when should "paths" be assigned?

Dave.