diff --git a/libbb/parse_config.c b/libbb/parse_config.c
index e63204b09..f07099285 100644
--- a/libbb/parse_config.c
+++ b/libbb/parse_config.c
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Typical usage:
 	// open file
 	if (config_open(filename, &p)) {
 		// parse line-by-line
-		while (*config_read(&p, t, 3, 0, delimiters, comment_char)) { // 0..3 tokens
+		while (*config_read(&p, t, 3, 0, delimiters, comment_char) >= 0) { // 0..3 tokens
 			// use tokens
 			bb_error_msg("TOKENS: [%s][%s][%s]", t[0], t[1], t[2]);
 		}
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ int FAST_FUNC config_read(parser_t *parser, char **tokens, int ntokens, int mint
 //TODO: speed up xmalloc_fgetline by internally using fgets, not fgetc
 		line = xmalloc_fgetline(parser->fp);
 		if (!line)
-			return line;
+			return -1;
 
 		parser->lineno++;
 		// handle continuations. Tito's code stolen :)
diff --git a/miscutils/crond.c b/miscutils/crond.c
index af37bb15b..41f151753 100644
--- a/miscutils/crond.c
+++ b/miscutils/crond.c
@@ -468,7 +468,7 @@ static void SynchronizeFile(const char *fileName)
 		file->cf_User = xstrdup(fileName);
 		pline = &file->cf_LineBase;
 
-		while (--maxLines && (n=config_read(&parser, tokens, 6, 0, " \t", '#')) > 0) {
+		while (--maxLines && (n=config_read(&parser, tokens, 6, 0, " \t", '#')) >= 0) {
 			CronLine *line;
 
 			if (DebugOpt) {
diff --git a/networking/nameif.c b/networking/nameif.c
index 506f4fa1c..c5a715e36 100644
--- a/networking/nameif.c
+++ b/networking/nameif.c
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ int nameif_main(int argc, char **argv)
 		struct parser_t parser;
 		if (config_open(&parser, fname)) {
 			char *tokens[2];
-			while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 2, 2, " \t", '#'))
+			while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 2, 2, " \t", '#') >= 0)
 				prepend_new_eth_table(&clist, tokens[0], tokens[1]);
 			config_close(&parser);
 		}
diff --git a/util-linux/mdev.c b/util-linux/mdev.c
index 8968e45f8..c04410c0c 100644
--- a/util-linux/mdev.c
+++ b/util-linux/mdev.c
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ static void make_device(char *path, int delete)
 		if (!config_open(&parser, "/etc/mdev.conf"))
 			goto end_parse;
 
-		while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 4, 3, " \t", '#')) {
+		while (config_read(&parser, tokens, 4, 3, " \t", '#') >= 0) {
 			regmatch_t off[1+9*ENABLE_FEATURE_MDEV_RENAME_REGEXP];
 			char *val;