diff --git a/lib/reed_solomon/decode_rs.c b/lib/reed_solomon/decode_rs.c
index 65bc718..0ec3f25 100644
--- a/lib/reed_solomon/decode_rs.c
+++ b/lib/reed_solomon/decode_rs.c
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@
 		 * deg(lambda) unequal to number of roots => uncorrectable
 		 * error detected
 		 */
-		count = -1;
+		count = -EBADMSG;
 		goto finish;
 	}
 	/*
diff --git a/lib/reed_solomon/reed_solomon.c b/lib/reed_solomon/reed_solomon.c
index 5b0d852..3ea2db9 100644
--- a/lib/reed_solomon/reed_solomon.c
+++ b/lib/reed_solomon/reed_solomon.c
@@ -320,6 +320,7 @@
  *  The syndrome and parity uses a uint16_t data type to enable
  *  symbol size > 8. The calling code must take care of decoding of the
  *  syndrome result and the received parity before calling this code.
+ *  Returns the number of corrected bits or -EBADMSG for uncorrectable errors.
  */
 int decode_rs8(struct rs_control *rs, uint8_t *data, uint16_t *par, int len,
 	       uint16_t *s, int no_eras, int *eras_pos, uint16_t invmsk,
@@ -363,6 +364,7 @@
  *  @corr:	buffer to store correction bitmask on eras_pos
  *
  *  Each field in the data array contains up to symbol size bits of valid data.
+ *  Returns the number of corrected bits or -EBADMSG for uncorrectable errors.
  */
 int decode_rs16(struct rs_control *rs, uint16_t *data, uint16_t *par, int len,
 		uint16_t *s, int no_eras, int *eras_pos, uint16_t invmsk,