Various pages: Various improvements in wording in RETURN VALUE

Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>

9 files changed, 27 insertions, 22 deletions

diff --git a/man2/ioctl_console.2 b/man2/ioctl_console.2
index 4cac0bac2f..1128bc6070 100644
--- a/man2/ioctl_console.2
+++ b/man2/ioctl_console.2
@@ -802,9 +802,9 @@ Powering down frequently will damage the monitor.)
 .RE
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success, 0 is returned.
-On error, \-1 is returned, and
+On failure, \-1 is returned, and
 .I errno
-is set.
+is set to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 .I errno
 may take on these values:
diff --git a/man2/s390_pci_mmio_write.2 b/man2/s390_pci_mmio_write.2
index 5897c967ed..a9088c25f0 100644
--- a/man2/s390_pci_mmio_write.2
+++ b/man2/s390_pci_mmio_write.2
@@ -73,9 +73,9 @@ On success,
 and
 .BR s390_pci_mmio_read ()
 return 0.
-On error, \-1 is returned and
+On failure, \-1 is returned and
 .IR errno
-is set to one of the error codes listed below.
+is set to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 .TP
 .B EFAULT
diff --git a/man2/s390_runtime_instr.2 b/man2/s390_runtime_instr.2
index 71e391fe9b..d1ed61dc9b 100644
--- a/man2/s390_runtime_instr.2
+++ b/man2/s390_runtime_instr.2
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ The caller can then read and modify the control block and start the run-time
 instrumentation.
 On error, \-1 is returned and
 .IR errno
-is set to one of the error codes listed below.
+is set to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
diff --git a/man2/spu_create.2 b/man2/spu_create.2
index 8b33c61dda..ff0dbdc205 100644
--- a/man2/spu_create.2
+++ b/man2/spu_create.2
@@ -173,9 +173,9 @@ is used within the SPU scheduling algorithm.
 On success,
 .BR spu_create ()
 returns a new file descriptor.
-On error, \-1 is returned, and
+On failure, \-1 is returned, and
 .I errno
-is set to one of the error codes listed below.
+is set to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 .TP
 .B EACCES
diff --git a/man2/spu_run.2 b/man2/spu_run.2
index 53b23282cf..fb18797596 100644
--- a/man2/spu_run.2
+++ b/man2/spu_run.2
@@ -107,9 +107,9 @@ On success,
 returns the value of the
 .I spu_status
 register.
-On error, it returns \-1 and sets
+On failure, it returns \-1 and sets
 .I errno
-to one of the error codes listed below.
+is set to indicate the error.
 .PP
 The
 .I spu_status
diff --git a/man3/iconv.3 b/man3/iconv.3
index 6510a4c769..c3c243e3a1 100644
--- a/man3/iconv.3
+++ b/man3/iconv.3
@@ -124,8 +124,13 @@ The
 .BR iconv ()
 function returns the number of characters converted in a
 nonreversible way during this call; reversible conversions are not counted.
-In case of error, it sets \fIerrno\fP and returns
-.IR (size_t)\ \-1 .
+In case of error,
+.BR iconv ()
+returns
+.IR (size_t)\ \-1
+and sets
+.I errno
+to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 The following errors can occur, among others:
 .TP
diff --git a/man3/iconv_close.3 b/man3/iconv_close.3
index 01ff242e66..c9e8708d90 100644
--- a/man3/iconv_close.3
+++ b/man3/iconv_close.3
@@ -28,12 +28,11 @@ function deallocates a conversion descriptor
 previously allocated using
 .BR iconv_open (3).
 .SH RETURN VALUE
-When successful, the
+On success,
 .BR iconv_close ()
-function returns 0.
-In case of error, it sets
+returns 0; otherwise, it returns \-1 and sets
 .I errno
-and returns \-1.
+to indicate the error.
 .SH VERSIONS
 This function is available in glibc since version 2.1.
 .SH ATTRIBUTES
diff --git a/man3/iconv_open.3 b/man3/iconv_open.3
index ce0d82bd05..4d3385e13b 100644
--- a/man3/iconv_open.3
+++ b/man3/iconv_open.3
@@ -82,14 +82,15 @@ with NULL as
 .I inbuf
 argument.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
-The
+On success,
 .BR iconv_open ()
-function returns a freshly allocated conversion
+returns a freshly allocated conversion
 descriptor.
-In case of error, it sets
+On failure, it returns
+.IR (iconv_t)\ \-1
+and sets
 .I errno
-and returns
-.IR (iconv_t)\ \-1 .
+to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 The following error can occur, among others:
 .TP
diff --git a/man3/popen.3 b/man3/popen.3
index f670acb254..e39dc9b02e 100644
--- a/man3/popen.3
+++ b/man3/popen.3
@@ -142,9 +142,9 @@ on success, returns the exit status of the command; if
 returns an error, or some other error is detected,
 \-1 is returned.
 .PP
-Both functions set
+On failure, both functions set
 .I errno
-to an appropriate value in the case of an error.
+to indicate the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 The
 .BR popen ()